Comes the Sunset
by ScipioSmith
Summary: Sunset Shimmer returns from far off worlds, and with dread magics mastered on her journey between dimensions begins to wreak havoc upon Equestria. Using the Labyrinth Box, she imprisons the four mages who alone can threaten her: Twilight Sparkle, Breaking Dawn, Trixie and Chrysalis. As Equestria descends into darkness it falls to the Cutie Mark Crusaders to save Equestria.
1. The Happy Return

Comes the Sunset

Chapter 1

The Happy Return

The sun, raised by the power of Celestia's magic, rose over the eastern horizon to shine its rays over Ponyville. The light illuminated a town still asleep, as well it might be at the crack of dawn, and enlarged by the addition of a hundred and twenty tents pitched on the outskirts of town. Ponies in armour patrolled the edges of the tent field and the boundaries of the town itself, their burnished bronze catching the shine of the breaking dawn. The Equestrian flag, the Two Sisters, flew over a makeshift drill square in the centre of the camp. As the sunlight began to burn away the morning mist, Captain Lancer of the Twilight emerged from his tent, put his helmet on, and went to stand beside the flag. The yawning sentries leaning on their spears straightened visibly at the sight of him.

Lancer waited a few moments until one of the other tentflaps opened and the company bugle colt emerged blinking into the sun. With considerably less poise than his captain had displayed he ran over to the standard, the bugle around his neck flapping as he ran. The white unicorn colt skidded to a halt, saluted the water with captain, raised the bugle to his lips and began to play reveille.

The sound of that martial call spread throughout the slumbering town, soon joined by various angry exclamations, strong oaths and the slamming of window panes as ponies roused from sleep voiced their displeasure.

Inside the Golden Oaks Library, Princess Twilight Sparkle awoke with bleary eyes which took a moment to register that, yes, it was the same time as always, and just as unwelcome as always too.

"I am going to kill him," Twilight muttered.

Spike, who could sleep through the end of the world and had proved it twice, snored. Twilight glared at him as though his restful slumber was an act calculated to mock her.

Huffing, Twilight fluttered out of bed and walked to the window, which she opened with her magic. Sticking her head out, Twilight raised her voice to its highest and yelled, "WILL YOU CUT THAT OUT?"

The last notes of reveille died away as Lancer turned around and waved to her across the distance between them, "Morning, Your Highness. Fine day isn't it?"

Twilight growled wordlessly as she slammed shut the window. Like Spike's snoring, the fact that Lancer never looked in the least bit tired was something else that seemed designed to annoy her. And in her captain's case she half suspected it was intentional.

Twilight washed quickly, brushed her teeth, combed her mane and woke Spike by pulling his blanket off him and giving him a gentle nudge with her nose.

"Whuh, huh," Spike blinked sleepily. "Twilight? Do you know what time it is?"

"I'm not exactly happy about it either," Twilight growled. "Come on, we're going to the camp."

"Aw, what do you need me for?"

"In case I have to tell Princess that I need a new guard captain," Twilight said darkly.

She trotted down the stairs, Spike following grumbling behind her. Twilight Sparkle opened the door to the library just in time to see the Mayor approaching up the street. Her grey mane, which lent her an air of gravitas and dignity, was showing streaks of pink at the roots, clearly she had forgotten to dye it properly before setting out. There were also bags under the Mayor's eyelids and she was yawning as she approached.

"Ah, your highness," the mayor gave a leonine yawn before continuing, "after two weeks, ponies are starting to wonder─"

"I'm going to put a stop to it once and for all," Twilight said firmly. "And this time I'm not taking no for an answer."

"Can't you just order him to stop?" the Mayor asked.

Twilight frowned, "Captain Lancer and I are having a disagreement as to what I can and cannot order him to do. We won't be having one for much longer."

"Thank you, your highness," the Mayor bowed deferentially. "I'll be sure to pass that on to all the concerned citizens."

"And don't call me 'your highness', please," Twilight said. "Twilight Sparkle is fine."

The Mayor bowed again, but didn't actually agree to drop the style. Twilight didn't argue the point, it was too early in the morning and she wanted to wrap this business up while there was still time to get a couple more hours sleep.

Her steps felt heavy as she trod through Ponvyille towards the camp of her royal guard. As she walked, Twilight wondered what had possessed Princess Celestia to allow them to come out here. When Twilight moved back to Ponyville after what ponies were calling the Aethiope Coup she had quite purposefully left her guard behind. Their presence in Canterlot had been a nuisance which she had most definitely not wanted to suffer in Ponyville, on top of which they had completely failed to stop a delusional narcissist from trying to take over Twilight's life so they didn't even have tremendous efficiency to recommend them. Twilight's instructions had been clear: stay in Canterlot, guard the palace and help out with any odd jobs that needed doing during the reconstruction of Canterlot after the zebra attack.

But, two weeks ago, she had received a letter from Princess Celestia. It seemed that Captain Lancer had been petitioning daily for the Twilight Guard to rejoin their royal charge and she had decided for the sake of the royal ears to accede to his request. Besides, Celestia would feel better if Twilight was protected against any more problems like she had had with Breaking Dawn. Twilight thought it was unlikely that there were more insane ex-students waiting in the wings to hurl themselves upon her but, when Princess Celestia wanted something she didn't have to say please, and it seemed she wanted Twilight's guard out of Canterlot.

Twilight did not want to sack Lancer ─ he had been instrumental in fighting off the Grevyian zebras, Shining Armour thought very highly of him as a fighting stallion and he _was_ trying to do his job as best he knew how ─ but she felt that they were reaching the point at which it might come to that. She had already tried to get rid of him gently by recommending him for the vacant post of First Captain, unfilled since the tragic loss of Shining Armour's replacement, which would have given him command of all five companies and a post back in Canterlot. By happy coincidence it would have left the Twilight Guard under the command of Lieutenant Flash Sentry, who seemed less likely to talk back to his princess, probably because he wasn't old enough to be her father. Sadly, Princess Celestia had replied that that was quite impossible. The reasons why were not wholly implausible: Lancer was the most junior of the company captains, the more senior ponies wouldn't like him vaulting over their heads, there wasn't an experienced officer to replace him with, but reading between the lines Twilight had the impression that Princess Celestia just didn't want him back.

So it was up to Twilight to deal with him.

As she passed out of the town proper and into the guard camp, her guardponies bowed to her as they straightened up from their tasks: washing, polishing their armour, maintaining their weapons, patrolling the perimeter of the camp and town. Most of them were unicorns, with a smattering of earth ponies and two score of pegasi, most of whom were being given close order drill by Lancer in the centre of the camp as Twilight approached.

"That's it boys, keep it close, shoulder to shoulder," Lancer called. "Sergeant Steadyhoof, cadence!"

The captain turned as Twilight stalked towards him, a slight smile playing across his grey features, "Princess Twilight! Good of you to grace us with your presence, it does the colts and fillies good to see you take an interest."

Twilight glared at him, snorting as she did so, "I think that you and I need to go somewhere we can talk privately."

"Anything Your Highness has to say can be said here, ma'am," Lancer said casually.

"Okay then," Twilight took a deep breath. "Enough with the trumpet already!"

Every guard stopped what he was doing to look her way.

"All right, all right nopony told you to stop working, get to it," Lancer snapped. As they scurried off about their several tasks, Lancer returned his attention to her, "Now that you've unblocked my eardrums ma'am, for which thank you, perhaps you'll care to explain your meaning?"

"Every. Single. Morning you wake up everypony in Ponyville playing reveille. Every night you wait till almost everypony is in bed before you play taps to wake them up again. Nopony can get any sleep! Neither can I! I'm going to loose my mind if this keeps up!"

Lancer looked at her as though he thought she might have lost her mind already, "I don't do it on purpose ma'am."

"Then why are you doing it?" Twilight demanded. "You never used to wake up Canterlot like this."

"Being quartered in the city is different to being garrisoned out in the field," Lancer said. "Different regu─"

"Ponyville is not a field," Twilight snapped. "There's a whole town! It's over there! You can't miss it!"

Lancer eyed Ponyville disdainfully, "Yes it's...charming, I'm sure."

Twilight scowled, "Is this what this is all about? Do you have a problem with Ponyville?"

"I've nothing against Ponvyille specifically ma'am," Lancer said quietly. "I just don't like small towns in general. They're not wholesome. That's why I have to sweat the troops so much harder here, to keep them in shape and stop the small town miasma getting to them."

Twilight would have laughed if she hadn't been so annoyed, "I'll have you know that this is the most 'wholesome' place in all of Equestria. This is where I learnt all about the magic of friendship that enabled me to become a princess."

"A fact which constantly amazes me, ma'am," Lancer replied in a deadpan tone.

A sound of wordless anger issued from Twilight's mouth before she got herself a little more under control, "If you hate being in Ponyville so much then why did you press so hard to come out here?"

"A guard in a different city from the person he is supposed to be guarding is absolutely pointless, your highness," Lancer observed.

Twilight was about to reply, then stopped. She raised one eyebrow knowingly, "Are you doing this so that everypony will want me out and we can all go back to Canterlot?"

"...No," Lancer replied, looking almost as guilty as Applejack when she tried to lie.

"Well, let me tell you something and I am only going to say this once," Twilight advanced upon her captain, forcing him to retreat before her. "Whatever you think this is going to accomplish it stops right now. And I do not want to hear any more nonsense about what orders I can and cannot give you. I am a princess of Equestria, empowered by Princess Celestia herself, and I am giving you a royal command: if you want to play your bugle you can do it between the hours of seven in the morning and eight at night. Anything else and I expect you to be quiet do I make myself clear?"

Lancer blinked. Then licked his lips, "And if I don't? Princess Celestia pays my salary, not you."

Twilight frowned, "I am sure that having you fired would be difficult and time consuming. But I want you to think about this: I am Princess Celestia's student and protege, she gave me a crown and a pair of wings. If I make enough noise about you do you really think that she'll say no?"

Lancer was silent for a moment, then he grinned and gave a belly laugh, "Nicely done, ma'am, nicely done. That's good royal steel you've got beneath that lavender coat, it will serve you well."

Twilight blinked, "You did this, on purpose?"

"I have to make sure the small town miasma doesn't get to you too, Your Highness," Lancer said with a grin.

Twilight huffed in annoyance, "Oh well, I suppose that's a lesson learned this week: sometimes the only way to deal with somepony is to blow up at them so that they'll get the message that you're serious."

"Do you want me to put that in a letter to the Princess?" Spike asked.

Twilight gave him a Look, "No, Spike, no I don't. Let's go back to bed. Now that everypony can go back to bed."

As she turned away, Lancer called out, "Three cheers for Princess Twilight! Hip hip!"

"Hooray!" the guardsponies called.

"Hip hip!"

"Hooray!"

"Hip hip!"

"Hooray!"

_I really don't get that guy sometimes,_ Twilight thought as she left the encampment. On her way out, she was intercepted by Lieutenant Flash Sentry, who was blushing slightly as he looked down at the ground, scraping the grass with his hooves.

"Um, Your Highness, I was, um, wondering if I could ask you something?"

"Of course, what is it Flash?" Twilight asked, masking her tiredness and putting a show of calm attentiveness to his problem.

"Um, well, you see, Your Highness, I was hoping that," Flash Sentry's blush deepened, the red a rather attractive shade upon the golden coat of the young pegasus. Seeming to gather up his courage, Flash Sentry came to a bolt straight attention, "Princess Twilight, may I have your permission to ask Miss Rarity out on a date?"

"WHAT?" Spike yelled. "What did you say, why you little mumph umph─"

Twilight put one hoof in Spike's mouth and laughed nervously, "Pay no attention to my assistant, he gets cranky when he's up too early. Um, why are you asking me this?"

"She is Your Highness' friend and I am your soldier," Flash replied. "I don't think I can go ahead without your permission."

Spike shoved Twilight's hoof out of his mouth, "That's right, she's gonna tell you to take a mumph umph─"

"Sorry about that," Twilight said. "Can I ask why you want to go out with her?"

"Isn't it obvious? She is more beautiful than words can say," Flash Sentry replied. "Were she the princess in your stead then surely all the world would desire her. Not that I mean to slight you Your Highness! You are very pretty in your own right, not that I look at you that way, I mean─"

"Don't dig yourself any deeper," Twilight rescued the stallion from himself. "Listen, Flash Sentry, whatever ideas you might have brought with you from Canterlot I want you and all the other guards to understand something: Rarity, the girls, they are my friends. Not my maids, not my lackeys, not my servants, my friends. I'm not going to give you my permission because I don't have the right to dictate who Rarity spends time with, what company she chooses to keep, how she lives her life. If she wants to go out with you, she can. But that's a question for her to answer, not me. Probably best not to ask so early in the morning though."

"Right," Flash nodded. "Thank you, Your Highness." He headed into the midst of the forest of the tents, in the opposite direction from Twilight and Spike heading into Ponyville.

"Why did you keep me quiet, Twilight?" Spike demanded once he was free to talk again. "He can't go out with Rarity! She's mine!"

Twilight favoured him with another Look, "Regardless of how you feel about Rarity, Spike, you don't own her. It's entirely her choice and that's exactly what I told Flash Sentry."

"But you could have stopped him!"

"Spike, do you really want to be that creepy guy who controls Rarity's life and stops her from talking to other ponies because he's insanely jealous?"

"Yes!"

"Spike."

"Okay, not really, but come on."

"It's just a date, Spike, it isn't as though he's going to propose to her."

"It all starts with a date, Twilight. What if they hit it off? What if she falls in love with him? What if he does propose and they get married and I'm left alone for the rest of my incredibly long life?"

"I think you're overthinking this a little, Spike, it isn't that serious."

"Yeah, you're right. What was I thinking? It's not as if Rarity will go for a guy like that. He's only handsome, brave, her own age, from a good family...OH CELESTIA I'M TOTALLY DOOMED!"

Twilight giggled, "Relax, Spike, in all honestly I don't think it will work out even if she does agree to go on a date or two with him."

"You don't?"

"Of course not," Twilight said dismissively. "You heard what he said when I asked why he wanted to go out with her: her looks. He doesn't know her, doesn't appreciate the things that make her special. Rarity knows that you see her for who she really is and love her for it, just like she appreciates your more subtle qualities."

"Yeah, that's right!" Spike declared, confidence full ahead in contrast to his despair of a few moments earlier.

Twilight shook her head at her young friend's antics as they approached the door of the library. Her bed beckoned for a little while longer, and it was so close that she could almost─

"TWILIGHT!"

A pink blur cannoned into Twilight, bearing her backwards as they bounced along the ground for a few feet, coming to a stop with Twilight flat on her back staring up at Pinkie Pie, crouched on top of her with her tail wagging.

"Morning Pinkie."

"Twilight! Thank goodness you're awake, we've got so many things to do. I can't believe they didn't let us know about this before. We've got so much to do! I have to make a cake and find some balloons and I'm nearly out of party streamers and─"

"Calm down, Pinkie, I don't know what you're talking about," Twilight said.

"This!" Pinkie Pie shoved a telegram into Twilight's face. "It's today! They're coming back early and today! And I haven't even started preparing the party yet!"

Twilight got up from underneath Pinkie Pie and read the telegram.

_Dear Pinkie Pie,_

_I'm sending this to you from the Western Unicorn office in Ponylvania. Thanks to good weather, our ship docked in Baltimare earlier than expected, and Rainbow Dash and I were able to get an earlier train home. So, unless there are delays, we should be arriving back in Ponyville at noon today. Although Quaggai was wonderful, we're both so excited to be back home and looking to telling you all about it._

_Fluttershy._

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh," Twilight yelped. "Their coming home at noon today? They can't come back today, party planning isn't in my schedule until friday! Okay, deep breaths. Pinkie, you start baking the cake and other goodies, I'll send Applejack over to help you out."

"Okie dokie loki!"

"And after that, Rarity and I will head over to Fluttershy's cottage and tidy the place up before they get back. Spike, you go to the train station and wait for them. If I send Owlowiscious over, it's because we need more time and you'll have to stall Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. If you don't see Owlowiscious, then bring them over to the cottage for the party, okay?"

Spike snapped off a salute.

"Okay, let's make this special," Twilight said. As Pinkie Pie dashed back to Sugarcube Corner and Twilight started off to round up Applejack and Rarity, she reflected that this had actually been quite a good day to be woken up too early.

* * *

Later that morning, as Sugarcube Corner resounded to the sounds of furious baking, the Cutie Mark Crusaders sat forlornly at a little table, picking at their sundaes.

"You know, we might have our cutie marks by now if you'd let us try being psychiatrists," Scootaloo said.

"Well we didn't, and we didn't, so why don'tcha let it go and see if you can come up with a new idea," Apple Bloom shot back. "What do we know about bein' psychiatrists anyway?"

"What do we know about anything we try?" asked Sweetie Belle despondently.

The other two offered mournful groans to state their agreement with that assessment, and their heads lowered to the table in shared despond, resting their chins upon the wood and lowering their eyes downwards.

"Maybe if we," Apple Bloom began. "No, that wouldn't work. Maybe, nah."

"Ugh, we'll never get our cutie marks if we can't even decide what we should be trying to get them in," Scootaloo moaned. "Let's try the zip lining again, maybe a bang on the head we'll give us some inspiration."

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle affixed her with looks that said quite plainly that they could not believe she was serious.

The bell above the door to Sugarcube Corner rang as Twilight's guard captain, Lancer Apple Bloom thought his name was, stepped inside. He looked around the empty cafe, finally spotting the three demoralised fillies sitting in the corner.

"Something has you pretty upset, by the look of it," Lancer said. "Have you see Her Highness anywhere about?"

"Twilight's in the kitchen with Applejack and Pinkie Pie," Apple Bloom replied. "They took over it so they could cook for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's welcome home party. That's why there's nopony here."

Lancer nodded, "I need to talk to her about putting a guard on the library door to keep the riff raff away. That'll be fun." He walked a little closer to the three Crusaders, and sat down, "So, what's got you girls so down? I've not seen such miserable faces outside of a funeral."

"Oh, the same old thing," Scootaloo said. "We try so hard and we can never get our cutie marks."

"Everypony in class has theirs except for us," Sweetie Belle added.

Lancer sighed, "Blank flank blues, huh? I know how that feels. Do they give you a hard time over it?"

"Totally," Scootaloo moaned.

Lancer nodded, "They'll do that. My brothers gave me no end of grief for not having my cutie mark."

"But I bet you showed them once you finally got your mark, right?" Scootaloo said.

"No, I didn't get my cutie mark until after I'd left home," Lancer replied. "And I haven't spoken to any of them since."

"So how did you get your cutie mark, mister?" Apple Bloom asked, leaning back a little to peer at the spear cutie mark of Lancer's haunch.

Lancer looked upwards briefly, "I grew up in a little town just like this one, on a cabbage farm outside of Hollow Shades. I was the youngest of seven brothers, and I hated it there. I hated the farm, I hated cabbages, I hated the grief I got for being the youngest and the smallest and the blank flank in the family. I mean, looking back now it was pretty small stuff, but when I was a kid it seemed absolutely massive. So, when I was just a little younger than your sisters, I ran away in the middle of the night and headed for Canterlot to seek my fortune and my destiny.

"I got there in the end, after a few mishaps and some lucky escapes, and I tried to join the Royal Guard. Some of the ponies laughed at me there too, wondering what a blank flank earth pony would bring to the Royal Guard, but the captain, old Ironsides, he gave me a chance. He threw me a spear, and when I took it in my hooves I felt a charge run through me like lightning. I was a natural with it, and by the time I'd completed the second kata I had my cutie mark."

"You sure got lucky with your name," Sweetie Belle said.

"Well, between you and me, I only started calling myself Lancer after I got my cutie mark, cause I thought it sounded cooler than the name I was given. My real name, and you have to promise to keep this to yourselves because it's very embarrassing," he leaned in close, "my real name: Wet Lettuce."

"No way!" Scootaloo said. "You're just messing with us aren't you?"

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," Lancer said, standing up with a wink. "But the rest was true, I promise. Now, I need to talk to Princess Twilight."

"Here I am," Twilight came out of the kitchen, with Applejack close behind. "Now, shall we talk outside. About your business and about stories that are appropriate for impressionable children."

The eyes of the Crusaders followed them as Twilight hustled Lancer out of the building, unheeding of the fact that Applejack was watching the three of them like a vulture.

_Grew up on a farm...ran away to Canterlot,_ Apple Bloom thought. _Hmmm._

The three of them looked at one another.

"Don't even think about it," Applejack said firmly.

"We weren't thinking nothin' sis," Apple Bloom protested.

"Well you're right about y'all not thinkin', but still," Applejack said. "That don't change the fact that I can see the wheels in yer head turnin' Apple Bloom and I won't stand for it. You ain't runnin' away to no big city if I have to truss you up in Winona's dog house to stop you."

"Why not, you did it when you were younger'n I am," Apple Bloom said loudly.

"And I wish that I had had an older sister to wup me upside the head and tell me what an idiot I was bein'," Applejack said. "Not to mention that I told everypony where I was goin' first. Were you really thinkin' about runnin' off someplace in the middle of the night? Can you imagine how upset Granny Smith would be? Or Big Macintosh? Or me? How worried we'd all be about you?"

"But this might be our chance to find our destinies and earn our cutie marks," Apple Bloom said.

Applejack rolled her eyes, "For the last time, you ain't gonna find your cutie mark by runnin' off and doin' crazy things or pullin' stunts. You'll get them by working out what kind of pony you want to be and acceptin' who you are."

"But what if the kind of pony we want to be is in Canterlot or Manehattan waiting for us?" Scootaloo asked.

"Then they can wait a few years until your old enough to make the trip responsibly," Applejack said firmly.

Sweetie Belle raised her chin defiantly, "You're not our sister, you can't tell me or Scootaloo what to do."

Applejack gave her a slightly incredulous look, as if she couldn't quite believe that Sweetie Belle had gone there, "You know what, you're absolutely right, I can't make y'all do anything or do anything to you."

"That's right," Scootaloo said. Apple Bloom, who could guess what was coming, had her head in her hooves.

"But I can tell Rarity and Rainbow Dash all about this nonsense and see what they have to say about it," Applejack said.

Sweetie Belle's face froze, then fell, her whole body slumping forward, "That's a low blow."

"So long as it worked, that's all that matters," Applejack said. "And remember, if I find the three of you gone I'll know exactly where to start looking."

She turned around, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders put the idea of running away to Canterlot to seek their destinies aside.

"Seriously, can just try the zip lining again?"

"No!"

* * *

In Fluttershy's cottage, that afternoon, the ponies crouched in the dark, rustling and scratching as they tried to get comfortable in their positions.

"Everypony shush, shhh!" Twilight hissed. "I can hear them coming."

Silence descended upon the cottage.

Hoofbeats and footsteps could be heard approaching the treehouse. The door swung open.

"SURPRISE!" Twilight's horn flared as she magicked all the candles in the room alight, and ponies leapt from their hiding places to welcome back Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash from their long absence. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and the Cutie Mark Crusaders all emerging from concealment to speak with thunderous voice.

So thunderous in fact, that Fluttershy vanished out of sight with a startled 'meep'. Rainbow Dash, hovering two feet off the ground in a Daring Do cosplay and her forelegs folded, sighed.

"Only you would be afraid of your own welcome home party."

Fluttershy poked her head around the door, "A party? For us?"

"Well of course, silly, why wouldn't we have a party to welcome back to of our bestest friends after they've been away for four whole months? I mean why wouldn't we have a party every chance we get because parties rule but especially why we wouldn't have a welcome party for you?"

Fluttershy crossed the threshold. A towering cake in the rough shape of a Quaggai mountain sat on her table. Balloons were strung from every conceivable place. Party hats were upon every head.

"Well, I'm home," Fluttershy said mildly.

Twilight beamed, "Welcome home." She hugged Fluttershy, then Rainbow Dash before Pinkie pulled all nine of them into one massive group hug that left Rainbow Dash scarcely able to breathe.

"So how was Quaggai, Rainbow Dash? Did you miss me?" Scootaloo asked, starry eyed and blooming in Rainbow Dash's presence as a flow exposed to rain after a heavy drought.

"Miss you? How could I not miss my surrogate little sister," Rainbow Dash rubbed Scootaloo's head with one hoof. "But it was totally sweet awesome while I was there, and watching some of the birds they got down there gave me some great ideas for new awesome tricks. Later I'll show you some of what I've been practicing."

Fluttershy meanwhile had dug out some photos of their safari, and was showing them to Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack. Photos of lions, elephants, rhinos, hippos, sidewinder snakes and desert horned lizards, geckos and skinks and tree agamae.

"It was so wonderful," Fluttershy said. "I got to meet so many different kinds of creatures. They were all so nice, and they had so many different stories to tell. Twilight, you know that hippopotamus means 'River Horse'? Well when I got to talk to some of them I was amazed at how similar to us they are once you get past their appearance. Like this one, she acted just like you, Pinkie." Fluttershy showed a photograph that showed a hippo in a pink tutu and a massive grin on her face leaping out of the river and about to land on a terrified looking Rainbow Dash. Another photo showed Dash racing away, only for the hippo in the tutu to be waiting for her.

"Hey, in my defence those hippos weigh a ton and a half," Rainbow Dash interjected. "You wouldn't want one to land on you either."

The others laughed, and the sounds of laughter and merriment issued out of Fluttershy's cottage and up into the air, ignorant and heedless of the dark clouds drifting towards Ponyville.

* * *

In her cabin aboard the War Galley _Chariot of the Sun_, Sunset Shimmer watched the party unfold through the bowl of wine she was using to scry with. Her spirits fluttered all around her, disturbing the careful folds of her wizards' robes.

Sunset Shimmer watched them making merry and a slow smile spread across her face. So the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony were once more united around Princess Twilight Sparkle? Good. So much easier to catch them all at once. Easier, and less perilous by far.

"Into the trap, the little mice go," Sunset Shimmer mused. "Until the trap falls shut, to tremendous woe. And there's nothing they can do about it."

With one hoof, Sunset reached out and stroked the ornately graven antique box which rested on her dressing table, the box upon which all her hopes for victory stood.

"Once you go in here, Twilight Sparkle, nopony will ever get you out again."


	2. Sunset and her Friends

Chapter 2

Sunset and her Friends

The Imperial Grevyian War Fleet glided into the cove with muffled oars, the wind whistling as it flew through the creaking rigging, howling through the thick white mist which enfolded the armada in its grip.

Sunset Shimmer stood at the prow of the Grevyian flagship, the _Chariot of the Sun_, draped in wizards' robes of many colours. Her face to the west and home, she listened to the sounds of the crew bustling behind her. The boatswain gave the commands and the anchor fell into the water with much clanking of chains. The rigging was secured as zebras scrambled to the topsails, tying down the canvas sails marked with the golden eagle of Most Ancient Grevyia.

Admiral Hanno approached Sunset Shimmer from behind. She did not need to see him to feel the nervousness reeking off him. He cleared his throat, "We cannot approach any closer to shore, Lady Sunset, or we'll tear the bottoms of the transports."

The 'Lady' was grudgingly given with something between fear and disgust. She had the Emperor's favour, or had possessed when the Emperor was still seen in public, so she must be given some measure of respect. But equally she was not a Grevyian, nor even a zebra, but a unicorn from barbarous Equestria. It did not slip by her that he had addressed her in prose, as he would a commoner. Sunset Shimmer didn't care, so long as he obeyed her she did not need his affection or his respect.

"Wait one day and then begin disembarking the army," Sunset announced. She could not see the grand armada, but she could hear the creaking rigging and the shouts of the sailors, and she could feel the host she had assembled all around, the expectation and anxiety oozing off them. Most of them were zebras and buffalo, the elite forces of the Great Houses of Grevyia and the best of the legions pledged to the Ivory Throne. There were elephants secured in the holds of the bulky transports, the draghkar and mantids Shrike had brought her, and most importantly of all her demons. Thos twisted souls she had gathered to her as she crossed a score of worlds, those she had found worthy and uplifted to become better, stronger, superior beings. They were fewer in number now than they had been before Chevalia had been an much needed dash of cold water, but they were enough: Equestria had never seen their like, and soon their numbers would be swelled anew. She had found converts already in Apis, those worthy to be raised up and reborn as her children.

Them she could feel most strongly of all, bound to her as they were. She could feel their desire for battle.

_Soon, _Sunset soothed them with a thought. _Very soon, your time will come._

"You are not going to oversee it yourself?"

Sunset smiled. She had surprised Hanno, that was good. While he could not prdeict her he would be wary of plotting against her. "I have business in Canterlot, I will rejoin you in the forest. Summon my lieutenants to me."

She stared at him, but he did not move.

"You're still here," Sunset observed tartly.

For a member of the High Blood, whom it was said learnt intrigue with their mother's milk, Hanno's features were shockingly transparent. She supposed that, since they wore masks constantly, they had never bothered learning to control their expressions. That was one of the reasons she had prohibited masks.

"What is it?" Sunset Shimmer demanded. "Speak!"

"Your plan is too dangerous," Hanno said. "Although we have been fortunate to have been concealed by this mist so far─"

"It isn't fortunate, it's me you fool," Sunset snapped. "And it will continue for as long as I will it so."

"Whatever it is, to land along the coast and attack a town of no significance, without a port to use as a base, it is folly!"

"Folly, is it? To attack without a base. Tell me, admiral, what use would we have for a port? Shall we receive reinforcements there? Are you so stupid that you do not know that there will no help coming from Grevyia to aid us in this task."

Hanno did not answer.

Sunset walked slowly towards him, "I will speak plainly, Lord Hanno: Most Ancient Grevyia is dying. Your nation may once have been the mightiest state in the whole world but now it is falling apart from its own decrepitude. Your treasury has no money, your people have no hope, your army has no vigour. You tried to capture Canterlot and were defeated by the very same troops who had earlier failed to hold the city from the changelings in spite of every advantage of position and preparation."

"That was─" Hanno began to protest, but Sunset Shimmer cut him off before he could get very far.

"That was par for the course for what Most August and Most Ancient Grevyia is capable of," Sunset snapped. "Quaggai encroaches on your western border and Grevyia is too weak to do anything but send raiders to bite at their settlements like fleas on a dog. The buffalo tribes upon the Thutmose river grow restless and Grevyia and Ne'Ari are alike too feeble to oppose them. This is the last host that Grevyia will ever raise, the last fleet that will ever sail from the imperial harbours." _And don't you just hate that it's been given to me, an outsider of no blood, not even a zebra at all?_ "This is the last chance for your beloved country to save itself, that is why your Emperor accepted my terms, that is why he gave me command, because he knew that I alone have the vision and the power necessary to save your empire. I will give you Equestria, and its gems will fill your coffers, its harvest will fill the bellies of your folk, its ponies will swell the ranks of Grevyia's legions. Imperial Grevyia will stand or fall upon the results of this battle, but only I can bring you the victory you need."

"Why?"

Sunset smirked, "Because I understand ponies. I was one of them once. I know who is to be feared and who is not. I know how they think, I know how they feel, I know now how to beat them."

"And this nowhere place, this Ponyville, that is the key?"

"Twilight Sparkle is the key," Sunset Shimmer said. She looked away from the zebra admiral, away into the mist. "There's not been one like her in a very long time, not since the migration I shouldn't wonder. So many of us, so powerful, so close to one another. If there is a pattern to the world then the pattern is planning something," she smirked. "Too bad I'm going to rip the stitches out. I've got a little something that will knock Twilight Sparkle out of the game, but the point is that she's not alone.

"That's why you Grevyians can never understand ponies: to you, a friend is someone you haven't betrayed just yet. But to ponies, friendship is the most powerful force there is. Twilight has five friends, and so long as they are free they won't ever stop looking for her, stop searching for a way to save her. And once they find that way then she'll be free and we'll all be in trouble. So we need to get all five of them, all at once, before anypony realises what's up. That's why we're going to Ponyville. Now get out of my sight and summon my lieutenants."

Hanno bowed warily, "As my mistress commands."

As he strode off the forecastle and onto the main deck, Sunset whispered, "Arial, come."

The spirit appeared in a flash, a barely visible flickering in the air, the minimal corporeal projection of his ethereal essence. Arial, like all his fellow spirits, could assume more substantive physical form if he chose, or was forced to, but generally did not. Sunset Shimmer was glad of that, the harder they were to spot the more her spirits remained her ace in the hole.

"Have I not done as I was bid, my mistress, and raised a mist to conceal your movements from unfriendly eyes?"

Sunset snorted, "Did you think that was the end of your service to me?"

"Not thought, but I had hoped," Arial said. "My brothers and sisters desire their liberty."

"And you?"

"I ache for it."

"Yet you have forgotten that were it not for me you would all still be prisoners of the warlock Calibos, who bound you into trees for years on end. I freed you from that."

"Freed us then tore us from our home to this strange place," Arial said.

"You are more free than you were," Sunset said.

"And could be more free still," Arial pressed.

"And in time you will be," Sunset replied sharply. "When I have accomplished all that I wish, I will set you free, I guarantee it. Until then, more insolence and I shall bind you in the ship's mast for a month or two until you recall why you were so glad to be rescued."

Arial made a flickering, swirling motion in front of her which Sunset Shimmer took for a bow, "How may I serve you, mistress?"

"I am leaving for a little while," Sunset Shimmer announced. "While I am gone, keep an eye on Hanno. He doesn't like me."

Arial giggled, "I don't think anyone really likes you, mistress."

"Needlepoint likes me, and Firethorn too," Sunset said defensively.

"Two among thousands are easily missed," Arial said.

"You really want to be stuck in a mast don't you?"

Arial sighed, "I shall watch him mistress."

"And the others too: Virtue and Emerald Ray. I don't trust them either."

"Yet you rely on them."

"I have a hold on them at present. It doesn't mean they wouldn't kill me if they thought they could get away with it," Sunset heard heavy hoofsteps coming her way. "Now go, and remain hidden."

Arial seemed to give a nod, as best she could tell, and flitted away into the mist he and his fellow spirits had created.

Sunset turned to face down the length of the ship, as with much thumping of hooves upon the wood her lieutenants climbed up onto the forecastle deck and formed a half circle around her, facing in.

"You summoned us, mistress?" Every word dropped from Virtue's mouth like an anvil, his speech slow and weary, his head ever so slightly hung. He looked like an old and beaten stallion, for all that he was only Sunset's age, and while it was useful for him to think her invulnerable, she hoped he would recover a little fire before she threw him against her enemies.

"Very astute of you to notice, Virtue," Sunset replied. Emerald Ray sniggered, but what Sunset noticed was the way that Virtue's nose wrinkled in distaste at her use of the diminutive of his name. She didn't know why it upset him so, if her real name had been Virtuous Fury she would have been grateful for anypony who would call her something a little less silly sounding. But then he was not an Equestria but had been picked up by her from the world of Chevalia, where they had a princess called Regal Grace and revered a hero called Dauntless Valour, so clearly they were just an odd folk when taken in total. "I called you up here so I could give you your orders."

"As always mistress, we live to serve you," Virtue sighed.

Sunset smiled, "I will be leaving now. I'm heading to Canterlot to catch up with an old friend before I announce my return home publicly."

She watched as a spark of hope kindled in Virtue's red eyes, and chuckled softly as she levitated the glowing blue sphere she wore on a chain about her neck from out of the folds of her many-coloured robes, "I'll be keeping this with me, before you start getting any ideas."

He didn't meet her eyes, "I do not know of what my mistress speaks."

"The hay you don't," Sunset chuckled some more.

"I'm coming with you," Shrike declared, not asking permission but rather stating a fact. "I need to find out what happened."

"I told you what happened," Sunset Shimmer said. "Nightmare Moon was defeated, her rebellion failed."

"You don't know what happened to the Shadowbolts," Shrike replied. "That's what I need to find out, I have to know what became of them. Canterlot is where I'll find my answers, and then I'll know what I have to do."

Sunset raised one inquisitive eyebrow, "Not thinking of abandoning me, are you?"

Shrike frowned, her lithe light blue body crouching down towards the deck, "Lady Nightmare's orders were clear when she opened the portal: go beyond the stars, beyond this world, how ever far I had to go, however long it took and find her allies, build her an army and return. If the battle still raged, aid her. If she had fallen, avenge her. Those orders still apply, and since you are the best I have to complete them I'll follow you. But I need to know what happened to the Shadowbolts I left behind. Even if a thousand years have past and they're all dead now, I have to know how they died and what is remembered of them."

Sunset nodded, "Then come with me, by all means. I don't think you'll like the answers, but you'll have them. But ditch the uniform first, it looks like a bad Nightmare Night costume."

Shrike looked herself up and down, her Shadowbolt uniform was so patched, torn and frayed that it was hard to recognise on first glance just what it was.

"What do you want the rest of us to do, Mistress Sunset?" Needlepoint asked, pushing his spectacles back up his nose with his unicorn magic. A dark blue unicorn, his silver mane was tied back in a long ponytail that hung over one shoulder.

"I've already given Admiral Hanno orders to start disembarking the army a day after I leave," Sunset replied. "Take them to Ponyville, hide them in the Everfree Forest and wait for me there."

"It'll be a tough job to hide an army this size once we get it on the move," Emerald Ray drawled. The largest of her lieutenants ─ if only just ─ still carried faint traces of crystal shimmer on his green coat and in his blue eyes. "I mean, I'm all for getting to a fight quick and all, but we don't want to be spotted on the way do we?"

"The mists will hide your approach," Sunset Shimmer said.

"The mists will be almost as much of a draw as an army would be," Virtue said. "Much as I hate to agree with the brute, but you cannot march an army of this size overland across half the country and not get spotted."

Sunset frowned. She wasn't fond of anypony contradicting her, or telling her that her ideas were no good. On the other hoof, both Emerald Ray and Virtuous Fury had led ponies in battle before, while she had not. That was, after all, why she had recruited the pair of them. What was the point if she was never going to listen to their advice.

"We need to take Ponyville with our first strike," she said. "Do you have a better idea how it might be done?"

"A smaller force will be able to hide more effectively while still getting the job done," Emerald Ray said, his voice the purring of a tiger. "These unicorns and earth ponies weren't very warlike in my day, and I guess they've only gotten softer since."

Sunset considered for a moment, "New plan then: Virtue, Emerald, take three hundred Grevyians, fifty demons and some of Shrike's draghkars and mantids and make for Ponyville. Needlepoint, Firethorn, hold the rest of the army here on the ships. When Ponyville is taken I will send for you."

"I would rather stay with you, mistress," Firethorn murmured.

"I know," Sunset replied. "But it won't be for long. Admiral Hanno!" Sunset walked down the length of the ship until she found the zebra admiral, "Your instructions have changed, Needlepoint will brief you."

"As my lady wishes," Hanno said. "The boat is ready to take you ashore."

"There's no need," Sunset grinned. "Shrike, stay close to me."

Shrike squeezed out of her threadbare Shadowbolt uniform and flew over the deck to stand close by. She said, "Are you sure you don't want to take the technicolour robes off too?"

"Maybe when we get there," Sunset said. Her horn glowed with a light blue aura, the same shade as her eyes. There was a blinding flash of light, the Grevyian War Galley disappeared, and when she opened her eyes again she and Shrike stood on the outskirts of Canterlot, looking up at the gleaming spires which towered above them.

"Wow," Shrike said. "I didn't think it was possible for anypony to teleport nearly that far."

"It isn't, for anypony but me," Sunset said. "When you travel between worlds you find the normal limits seem to stop applying to you. Go, find your answers. Meet me at midnight at the entrance to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."

"Right," Shrike nodded before taking off into the sky.

Sunset Shimmer began the rather slower walk into the city itself.

* * *

Shrike circled around Canterlot for a while, flitting above the streets, flying over the rooftops, before she finally found what she was looking for: the Canterlot Museum of Ancient History. She was still getting used to the fact that the world she had left behind was already Ancient History to everypony who lived now, but however weird it felt this was the place she wanted, and so she landed on the white marble steps leading up to the museum and began to climb up towards the temple-like building.

_So this is the capital now?_ That was another thing that would take some getting used to: the capital she knew was gone, the place where it stood turned into a wild forest ─ wild! could you believe it ─ and the palace of the Royal Sisters destroyed. The last thing Shrike herself remembered she and her fellow Shadowbolts had driven the Royal Guard out of that palace and raised the Nightmare Standard from the highest spire. It was when the Guard had come to take it back, with Celestia at their head, intent on purging Lady Nightmare in the mistaken belief that 'her' Luna was the true form of the princess rather than a child who had been outgrown by the mare, that Lady Nightmare had ripped open a portal in the fabric of space and bidden Shrike, her loyal captain, to go and bring her allies in their war against the sun.

_I do not know where the rift will take you. I cannot promise you will return. I ask much of you, my faithful Shrike._

_You ask no more than I am sworn to give, and gladly so._

_Then go, and find me children of the dark on other worlds willing to take our cause up for their own. If the battle still rages when you return, then come to my aid. If I have fallen, then avenge me. Avenge us all. Let darkness fall._

_And never be lifted._ And with those words Shrike had dived into the swirling, crackling vortex and been hurled through space and time, passing through worlds of dream and nightmare, drifting out of thought and life itself before landing somewhere solid.

And then she had found out that a thousand years had passed since she had left Equestria, that Lady Nightmare was nothing more than a bogeymare to frighten fillies, that the tyranny of the sun had not been broken, that she had been too late.

The sun shone down upon Shrike as she climbed the steps, its brightness and its heat mocking her every step, causing her to sweat in penance for having forsworn its light for the service of the dark.

_I did my duty, as did we all. We were sworn to the princess. If she commanded that the night would never end then we would do our utmost to give her that. We were not thestrals, to panic and turn traitor at the first sign of hardship. _

_What became of you, my brothers and sisters? Did you fall? Did you surrender? Do your descendants still live?_

A clock chimed, the loud bongs of the bells making Shrike jump half a pace into the air. So many things she would have to get used to.

She reached the top of the steps and passed into the shade of the colonnade, the long rows of ionian columns holding up the roof. Crowds of people were going in and out through the heavy wooden doors, colts and fillies with their parents, elderly scholar looking types, young ponies with the harassed look of students about them. Shrike slipped into the crowd and entered the museum, passing beneath three monumental statues of Platinum, Hurricane and Puddinghead which guarded the entrance. Thankfully it was free entrance, and Shrike deftly avoided the pony trying to sell guidebooks or prise donations out of the viewing public in order to get to the first map she could see.

_Right. Pre-Migration...Migration of the Pony Tribes...Founding of Equestria...come on, where is it...aha! Rule of the Pony Sisters and Nightmare Moon._ Shrike noticed the 'No Flying on the Premises' sign moments before she was about to take off to get above the crowds, and rather than draw needless attention to herself she duly trudged through the heaving masses, stalking in between them like a cat hunting its prey. Her prey was truth, and no matter how bitter the taste she would not be sated till she had consumed it all.

Shrike eventually reached the section she was looking for: Rule of the Pony Sisters and Nightmare Moon. Inside there were a lot of exhibits inside glass cases, or on public display surrounded by red velvet ropes with large and prominent Do Not Touch notices festooned around them. As she walked through the hall, Shrike was amazed by how much of this stuff she recognised, how what had been a functional utility to her, something she would have barely even noticed as she went about her life, was now, by the magic of a thousand years, transformed into History and often caked with the detritus of years to go with it. There was one of the leaf-bladed spearheads they had used back then, brief glances told her that the guards of today used more of an arrowhead shape. Over there was a helmet of the Lunar Guard, and there was one of the first flying goggles ever developed. Shrike remembered when they had first tested those goggles, the things were worse than useless as often as not as the lenses would crack at high speed and you'd get glass in your eyes. Now look at them: an item once scorned now revered as a chunk of the forgotten past.

A large painting, entitled _Frigid Winds and Burning Hearts_, hung on one wall of the museum gallery. It was labelled an 'artistic interpretation' of the defeat of Nightmare Moon, from some three hundred years after the event itself. Shrike gazed at it for a few moments, letting her anger at the thing grow to the point she was sorely tempted to desecrate the canvas. Nightmare Moon was painted as a figure of monstrous proportions, so vicious, so bestial that it was unbelievable, baring her fangs to her sister like some wild animal, poised to leap on her and pound Celestia with her hooves. Her side of the canvas was a deep coal black, as though Lady Nightmare had wanted to make everypony blind instead of lighting their way by the light of moon instead of sun.

By contrast to this evil black, Celestia was all white. She radiated light, as though she was the sun instead of simply raising it. She stood tall and proud, the epitome of civilised virtue facing the feral fury of Nightmare Moon.

"That wasn't how it was," Shrike murmured. "Lady Nightmare was eloquent and courteous, generous to her loyal subjects, she would have been kind-hearted ruler. She wasn't some monster. What kind of pony would have followed her if she had been?"

She turned her attention to a Shadowbolt uniform in a glass case, a uniform so pristine it needed no little card to tell Shrike it was a reproduction. Beneath that there was another card, with some information about the Shadowbolts.

_Reproduction Shadowbolt uniform (ceremonial) c. 80 TA_

_The Shadowbolts were a notorious band of ponies who gathered around Princess Luna in the years leading up to Nightmare Moon's banishment. After Princess Luna complained at Celestia's 'interfering' with her Lunar Guards, she began to assemble a force of ponies loyal solely to her. This group, called the Shadowbolts, was noted to consist of villains, vagabonds, bandits and other assorted detritus of society, drawn to Luna's service by the promise of pay and tolerance of their licentious excesses._

"No we weren't!" Shrike shouted. "Okay, a few of us were looking for a fresh start in life, but we were loyal to Luna, in the end we were the only ponies who remained loyal. That other stuff is just what ponies said about us because they didn't like our methods."

_When Nightmare Moon arose the Shadowbolts, drawn by the promise of lavish rewards, remained loyal to her even while the more upright and honourable Lunar Guards attempted to restrain her._

"Because they were traitors!" Shrike yelled.

_And drove the Royal Guards out of the Palace of the Royal Sisters. However, despite their best efforts they failed to prevent Princess Celestia from confronting Nightmare Moon and defeating her._

_Leaderless, the Shadowbolts fled, pursued by the Royal Guard. They were cornered in northern Equestria, in an old fortress on the border with the vanished Crystal Empire. Called upon to surrender, the Shadowbolts refused and were entirely wiped out in the ensuing battle._

Shrike's jaw hung open. The words she had read reverberated in her head over and over again.

_Entirely wiped out...leaderless...despite their best efforts...failed...notorious band...villains, vagabonds, bandits...entirely wiped out...failed._

"I'm sorry, brothers and sisters," Shrike murmured, bowing her head as a single tear rolled down her cheek. "I am so sorry. I came too late. It was I who failed, not you."

She wiped the tear from her cheek, only for another to take its place, "I cannot truly make amends for abandoning you, for failing you, for failing our mistress. But I promise you this: the world will know our story and you shall be honoured as you deserve, the bravest of the brave."

She closed her eyes, and let more tears fall.

* * *

Sunset Shimmer stood in Canterlot Cemetery, standing over a set of matching headstones. She had chosen them both herself, years ago when she was young. Simple designs, but with intricate flower patters garlanding each stone. Her parents had always liked flowers.

For a long time she stood there in silence, looking down at the white marble grave stones. Even when a very young colt began shouting that 'the mare over there doesn't have a shadow!' she had barely moved, except to cast the illusion of a shadow where one should have been and then smile politely when the colt's parents apologised for disturbing her.

_I feel like I should be more upset than I am._

Sunset knew, on an intellectual level, that there was no requirement for her to cry, for her to bare her soul, for her to collapse upon the graves. And yet, feeling the hollowness inside her chest, the cold void where there ought to have been heaving emotions, she could not help but feel at fault.

_Have I, in gaining so much upon my travels, lost something in exchange?_

But it wasn't as if she didn't feel. She felt satisfaction at the prospect of victory, a kind of glee at the payback she would soon visit upon Breaking Dawn, she still felt the same driving ambitions that had driven her this far.

So why did she feel nothing in this place? Had it all just been too long ago?

"I started this for you," Sunset murmured. "That was where it all started. I was looking for a way to bring you back. I thought it had to be possible, if I could just amass enough power, then I would find a way. But I never did.

"But I did find a way to keep myself from joining you. I don't know what kind of consolation that is, if any, but your daughter won't succumb to death the same way you did. I will master him and chain him up very soon. No decay of years, no sudden onset of disease, no collapse of health for Sunset Shimmer. I will rise above the princesses themselves and give this world the immortal it deserves."

"Just so long as you don't forget who taught you these new powers that are going to carry you so far," a snide, mocking, surprisingly young voice said from behind her.

Sunset glanced back. It was the colt from before, the one who had been so excited to see a pony without a shadow.

"So," Sunset said. "You're one of his. I'd never have guessed, you were very convincing."

"Look mommy, the mare over there doesn't have a shadow!" the colt shouted, in a higher pitched, more childish voice. "You were getting careless, I had to do something before somepony noticed who might actually look into it. We can't have you failing before you've paid your dues to your teacher."

"I take it you don't mean Princess Celestia?"

"You know exactly who I mean."

Sunset Shimmer nodded. Indeed she did, "What about your 'parents'? Are they spies too?"

"No, they're just clueless ponies who have a son of an innocuous age. Or should I say they had."

A minute frown was the only visible reaction this obtained from Sunset Shimmer, "Tell your master, I'm sure you have some way of getting in touch, not to sweat it. I've got it covered, everything is under control."

"Don't you mean our master?"

"If that was what I meant that was what I would have said," Sunset snapped. "So which one are you anyway?"

"I don't think you need to know that information," the little colt smirked. "You just need to remember that you made a contract with our master. Nopony breaks deals with him. Don't forget it."

There was silence. When Sunset Shimmer finally looked behind her, there was nopony there.

"Jerk," she spat on the ground. "I'm your student, not your slave. I'll do this my way, and nopony, no one, is going to tell me otherwise."

Her blue eyes flickered back to the graves of her parents, "You probably won't see me again. But wherever you are, be proud of me."

Sunset Shimmer turned away, putting the cemetery behind her as she trotted away.

The darkness was gathering by this time, night descending upon Canterlot as the sun made way for the moon. Somewhere above, in the high towers of the palace, Celestia and Luna were hard at work shifting the heavens in its sphere, changing the stars in their courses. Little did they know that the courses of the stars were about to be irreversibly altered by forces beyond their control or understanding.

By the time she arrived at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, it was fully night, all the students had either gone home for the day or were in their dorms in the rear part of the school. The courtyard was deserted, not even a gardener or a porter in sight. Sunset opened the gate and a swell of nostalgia engulfed her, the memories of years gone by overwhelming her mind for a moment as the familiar sights and scents of schooldays past crashed down on her. Here she had learnt, here she had played, here she had lived. She could still remember the time she and Trixie had dumped Lauren's schoolbooks in the fish pond over there. That was hilarious, watching her getting her hooves nibbled at goldfish as she tried to get them out.

_Trixie, I must look you up too when I'm finished here. Wouldn't want you telling tales about me now, would we?_

For better or worse, this school had made her the pony that she was today, and you had to respect that. Sunset Shimmer whistled as she walked through the gates and into the quad, stepping over those old familiar cobblestones until she stood before the new statue that stood on top of the fountain. The statue that, unbeknownst to the ponies who passed it every day, was actually the petrified remains of one Breaking Dawn.

"Hello there, Dawny," Sunset grinned. "How would you like to do me a favour?"


	3. Dawn Before Sunset

Chapter 3

Dawn Before Sunset

_Breaking Dawn dreamed, her mind floating free even as her body was entombed in stone.. _

_She and Celestia sat upon a hilltop a little outside of Canterlot, the summer sun shining soft and gently warm upon them both. A lavish picnic was spread out before them: the sweetest sweets and sharpest cheeses, the finest tea, the most moist cake. The most nourishing of sandwiches, the most succulent of quiches, the very best of everything. And the very best company to accompany it, her friends sat quietly around them, chattering amongst themselves even as their sound did not disturb the stillness Dawn felt coming from the princess. As they sat together, on the hillside and the meadow beyond the breeze blowing through the grasses and the rushes produced a curious sound, almost like somepony singing at a low pitch. _

_Dawn looked up into Celestia's eyes, her radiance nearly blinding the young unicorn. Yet Dawn smiled on._

_"Breaking Dawn? Is everything all right?" Celestia asked._

_Dawn smiled, "Everything is perfect. Absolutely perfect."_

_Celestia smiled back, "That's exactly what I wanted. Exactly what you deserve. Happy Birthday, Breaking Dawn."_

_"Yeah, Happy Birthday Dawny!" Hard Candy yelled, bursting a party popper._

_"Happy birthday, Little Sunshine," Razor Wind murmured._

_"And many happy returns," said Cherry Blossom._

_Dawn blushed, looking down at the chequered blanket on which she rested, "You guys, your highness..." _

_"Dawn?" Princess Celestia asked solicitously, her voice soft and her words inviting. "Dawn, is everything all right?"_

_"Of course it is," Dawn replied. "Nothing could be better. I could stay forever in this moment, you know?" Around her, her friends were already tucking into the spread, no food untouched, no drink untasted._

_Celestia's smile became tinged with melancholy, "I know you could, Breaking Dawn." The sun's light began to dim, the soft breeze being replaced with the howling of timberwolves far off. Summer's warmth made way for autumn leaves being blown away on a howling tempest, a storm which blew away all her friends as though they were rag dolls. In fact, as Dawn watched them disappear, they seemed to turn from ponies into a poor mare's dolls, things of patchwork rags which unravelled before the oncoming hurricane. _

_"Razor? Cherry? Lauren?" Dawn yelled, getting up and running to the edge of the hilltop as the remains of those who had been her friends was ripped away from her. "Hardy? Candy? This isn't funny." She turned around, "Princess Celestia, what─"_

_But Princess Celestia had disappeared._

_"Princess Celestia? Your Highness?" Dawn looked frantically all around her. "Princess Celestia?" The howling of the timberwolves began to get closer._

_"Princess Celestia, please come back," Dawn begged. "Please, please come back. Whatever it was I did wrong, it won't happen again. I'll do better in future. Please come back." _

_She could see the timberwolves now, howling as they ran towards her._

_"Princess Celestia," Dawn murmured, eyes wide and filled with tears, looking distractedly this way and that, too concerned with the disappearance of the princess to give any thought to how to avoid her peril. "Don't leave me!"_

_There was a crack as loud as thunder, and Breaking Dawn opened her eyes._

She had moments to take in a night sky, familiar buildings, and then there was only a pain like nothing she had ever experienced before.

_Aargh, sweet Celestia what, oh no that cursed zebra!_ Dawn thought as she toppled from her plinth and fell face-first onto the ground, even that failing to do more than barely register compared to the massive agony in her chest where the zebra had stabbed her at the end of the battle for Canterlot. If she could think past the pain she could feel her life blood ebbing out of the gaping hole.

"Princess...help me," Dawn murmured, hooves scraping futilely on the ground as though by getting purchase on the ground she might also gain a purchase upon life.

_Did Twilight Sparkle do this?_ Dawn thought as her breathing became shallower and shallower. _Has she decided to murder me after all?_

"I have to say, I like the bloodstained, mortally wounded look you've got going on," somepony laughed. "Dying becomes you, Breaking Dawn. But there wouldn't have been much point to waking you up just for you to drop dead on my hooves so I guess I'll have to help you out."

Red lightning enveloped Dawn, flickering up and down her golden coat, lashing at her, pricking her, pouring into the hole in her chest. Dawn yelled out in pain as the wound where the spear had pierced her began to stitch back together.

"Hush now, quiet now," the same pony who had mocked her agony whispered as the lightning continued to lash at Dawn. "We don't want to wake the little children now, do we?"

The lightning died down and Breaking Dawn drew a deep breath as she lay on the stone. Several gasps later and she looked around.

_School quad? They put me up as a statue in the quad? I mean, yeah, school is pretty cool and it's pretty much prime position, but what there was no room at the palace for a new statue? I was Princess Celestia's personal student you know!_

With a heave and a deep breath Dawn pushed herself up off the quad and onto her hooves from amongst from the fragments of shattered stonework that lay all around her. Dawn shook her head, dust falling from her red and white mane.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Breaking Dawn."

Dawn finally looked in front of her, at her mysterious rescuer. She didn't quite know who she had been expecting, one of the princesses maybe, but not who she saw there. A mustard yellow unicorn with a fiery red and yellow mane and blue eyes, shaded with green so that in the darkness they seemed almost turquoise.

She was older, but that didn't mean that Dawn didn't recognise her.

"Sunset Shimmer?"

Sunset smirked, "You remember me after all this time! Nice to see I made such an impression."

Dawn took a step backwards. She had never known Sunset Shimmer to bear her any good will, "You broke me out?"

"Yep," Sunset kept right on grinning. "'Cause I'm such an awesome pony like that."

"Why?" Dawn demanded. "Not like we were ever what you'd call friends."

"Well is that gratitude for you?" Sunset asked. "And really Dawny, can't a pony change? Isn't it possible that I just wanted to make amends, put the past behind us? Didn't everything I told you come true in the end?"

Dawn grunted, looking away. At their last meeting, on the day Sunset Shimmer was expelled from Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, Breaking Dawn had gone to watch her leave, and crow about her triumph. She had been full of herself in those days, secure in her position as Celestia's student, so when Sunset had warned her that just as Dawn had stolen the crown from Sunset so one day somepony would steal the crown from Dawn, the warning had gone ignored. More ponies worshipped the rising than the setting sun, after all, and a pony on the glory road as Breaking Dawn had been had no need to listen to an also ran like Sunset Shimmer.

And then Twilight Sparkle had come along and the rest was history.

"It's okay Dawny, I accept your apology," Sunset said, waving it away with one hoof.

"I didn't offer you one," Dawn replied sourly.

"And I've saved you the embarrassment of having to do so, aren't I nice?" Sunset giggled as she turned away, her back to Breaking Dawn, looking over the school assembly hall before turning her gaze upon the science and alchemy labs, "Takes you back doesn't it? Dear old school days?"

"I don't think they were ever more than bittersweet, for either of us," Dawn replied.

"Indeed," Sunset turned once more, again facing Breaking Dawn. "You know, we are a lot alike you and I. Both orphans, both students of the princess, both far more powerful that unicorns these days have any right to be. We even look kind of alike, though I look better of course."

"Of course," Dawn said in a voice dry as burning wood.

"And of course, we both lost our position as student of the princess, me to you and you to Twilight Sparkle, who had the good luck to be standing at the end of the daisy chain when the Nightmare Moon thing blew up. The difference between us," Sunset's smile became positively vicious, "is that of the two of us, only one of us to reacted to that rejection by becoming a pathetic wreck."

"You woke me up just so you could insult me?" Dawn demanded.

"Insult would imply that I wasn't speaking perfect truth," Sunset Shimmer replied. "I mean come on, Dawny, you got thrown out and spent the next few years moping about Canterlot, bouncing from one job to another moaning about how terrible it was that you couldn't be Princess Celestia's favourite any more, and how one day you'd show her and get your old place back? How is that not pathetic? And when you finally grew a backbone and decided to do something with your life, what did you do? You went after Twilight Sparkle. So that you could be the one playing dress-up princess instead of her. I mean talk about small ambitions for small minds. You know what I've done since leaving this place? I've travelled across dimensions. I've touched stars. I've built an army from the ground up drawn from every corner of the multiverse and loyal to me. I am the Wanderer Between Worlds, the Bright Destroyer, the mare who will bring Equestria to its knees and the ever-perfect Princess too. What do you have to show for yourself? A statue in the school quad? A heart full of love for somepony who doesn't give a fig for you?"

"She doesn't have to give me anything, that's what love means," Dawn snapped, her horn glowing golden as she readied her magic for a strike that would knock Sunset Shimmer on her back and out of consciousness. _After what she's said, who knows what Princess Celestia might give me for bringing her into custody._ "And I don't see any grand army here, backing you up. All I see is the same old Sunset Shimmer: bully, braggart, loudmouth. You think I'm going to stand here and take that from you? You think I'm going to let you do anything to hurt Princess Celestia? You may be all that and a bag of chips when you've got this army of yours around but it's just you and me right now and that didn't end so well for you the last time."

Sunset's smile didn't waver in the least bit, "Oh Dawny. Proud, stubborn, stupid Dawny. You don't think that healing your chest was all I did to you, do you?"

Dawn's green eyes widened as she felt a constricting in her chest, a tightening around her heart, "You─"

"Silence," Sunset barked, and Dawn's mouth snapped shut.

_What the hay has she done to me? And how did she do it, I don't recognise this magic at all!_

"You should see the anger in those eyes," Sunset laughed. "If looks could kill I do declare. Bow."

_No, no I won't ever bow to you!_ But Dawn's knees bent in defiance of her will.

"I own you now, Breaking Dawn. You belong to me, and I'm going to use you to get exactly what I want. I'd say your big mistake was getting on my bad side when we were young, but by then it was far too late for you already. Your real mistake was thinking you could raise yourself out of the dirt where you belong," Sunset Shimmer loomed over the prone form of Breaking Dawn, the triumphant unicorn seeming to grow larger even as the defeated Dawn felt herself diminishing.

"Now run," Sunset whispered, hissing into Dawn's ear. "Run away, Breaking Dawn, all the way to the Everfree Forest. Once there you'll know what to do."

Dawn tried to move her jaw, and found that she was permitted to speak, "What if I don't?"

Sunset smirked, "You don't have a choice. No matter how far you go, no matter where I am, from this day forward I will always own you."

The constricting in Dawn's chest became so tight that Dawn cried out in pain.

"Try and disobey me and you die," Sunset said. "Now, off you trot. You've a long journey ahead of you."

It was like one of the grim mare's tales, like the one about the dancer whose slippers kept on dancing and dancing until she dropped dead, and even then her feet keep moving as those cursed slippers kept dancing away like some macabre puppet show. Dawn felt like that dancer as her hooves moved independent of her mind, without direction from her will, and began to walk, then trot, then gallop out of the school and down the streets of Canterlot, fleeing from Sunset Shimmer and running into the darkness like a thief in the night.

Unable to stop, unable to do anything but run obedient to the command of her new mistress, Breaking Dawn felt a tear come to her eye.

_Only one of us reacted to that rejection by becoming a pathetic wreck. _

_What do you have to show for yourself? A statue in school quad?_

_You are not the pony that I thought you were._

_I felt sorry for you._

_You are condemned entirely for faults your own._

_I have never been so disappointed._

It hadn't always been this way. There had been a time Princess Celestia had called her 'faithful student' when her voice had been soft and her words inviting. There had been a time when all life's possibilities stretched out before Breaking Dawn and she knew with the absolute certainty of a child that her future was golden: honours, praise, love, royal rank and heroic destiny.

There was a time when ponies had had kind words for Breaking Dawn. There was a time when her loyal friends had idolised her. There was a time when her fellow students had called her the Untouchable, when awed whispers had followed her wherever she went.

There was a time when Breaking Dawn had been special, been somepony. And then it all went wrong. A combination of Twilight Sparkle's good fortune and Breaking Dawn's own follies had first brought her low, and then her own pride and vainglory had cast her into the pits of Tartarus. That was what had hurt the most about Sunset Shimmer's words: every last one of them was true.

She couldn't even bring herself to hate Twilight Sparkle any more. Not when it had been made clear to her with crystal clarity just who truly deserved to be hated for the ruin of Dawn's life.

Breaking Dawn began to weep as she ran through the streets of Canterlot, heading out of the city and in the direction of Ponyville, obeying the commands of a dread mistress who would soon lay waste to everything Dawn cared about or held dear.

And there was nothing she could do to stop it. The days when she had dreamed of being the hero of Equestria were gone. She was nothing now, for all her magic. Powerless, pathetic.

"This life has killed the dream I dreamed," Dawn sobbed.


	4. Stranger in Ponyville

Chapter 4

Stranger in Ponyville

Morning in Ponyville saw Twilight Sparkle joining her friends for breakfast at Sweet Apple Acres, sumptuous fare and the best company combined in perfect harmony, if one might excuse the atrocious pun. They were all sat around a large wooden table outside the barn, a table creaking under the weight of food piled upon it.

"So," Twilight paused for a moment to chew on a piece of hash brown. "What's everypony planning to do today?"

"I want to try and come up with some new stunts," Rainbow Dash said. "I'm having trouble coming up with ideas at the moment though. Hmm," she furrowed her brow, leaning over a little to get a better view of Rarity's exquisitely coiffed tail.

"Is everything all right darling?" Rarity asked anxiously, looking at her own tail as if she expected to see there was something wrong with it.

"I was just thinking," Rainbow put one hoof to her chin. "If I could somehow change my stream purple, I dunno with glitter or something, I could do a tight corkscrew spin in the shape of your tail and call it the Rarity Dive or something. Hey, maybe I could do your mane as well."

"That certainly would be a sight to see," Twilight chuckled.

"You really think that that would be impressive to see?" Rarity asked.

"Oh sure, your mane and tail are just made for that kind of thing," Rainbow Dash replied.

Rarity blushed, and began primping herself with one of her forehooves as the other ponies laughed good naturedly.

"Twilight!" Spike ran up the path from the farm entrance, panting as he called out, waving a scroll in one hand. "Twilight." He came to a halt, leaning on his knees and gasping for breath.

"Good golly Spike, what's the big hurry?" Applejack asked, sitting the baby dragon down and pouring him something to drink. "The way you're gaspin' anypony would think that Discord's turned evil again."

Spike swallowed and proffered the scroll, marked with the royal seal, to Twilight, "A letter from Princess Celestia."

Twilight's horn glowed as she took the letter in her telekinetic grasp and opened it. Clearing her throat, she began to read, "Dearest Twilight. I write to you now with grave news. Br─" Twilight gasped, and read that again to make sure.

"What is it Twilight, what's the news?" Pinkie Pie demanded, bouncing up and down.

"Breaking Dawn has escaped," Twilight said. "According to Princess Celestia her statue is gone, there were stone fragments all over the place, and nopony seems to know where she is. Canterlot is being thoroughly searched, but Princess Celestia wants me to consider the possibility that she may be on her way to Ponyville."

Rainbow Dash growled as she thumped the table, "I knew that she got off lightly the first time. When we catch her she should be sent somewhere far away, where she can't cause trouble any more."

"It's hard to cause trouble when you're turned to stone," Applejack reminded her. "Do the princesses know how she got out Twilight? I'm no expert in magic and whatnot, but it took Discord a thousand years to get free after Princess Celestia made a statue out of him."

"Yes, although admittedly that involved the Elements of Harmony so the spell involved was a little different," Twilight said. "Still, I can't help thinking that the only way for the spell to fail so quickly is due to external interference."

"She had a unicorn friend, if I recall correctly," Rarity reminded them all.

"Yes, but petrification is one of the highest level spells there is, I'm not sure I could cast it correctly even now. It's not something that just any unicorn could undo," Twilight said.

"Well however she got out, the real question is what do we do about it?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Do you really think that she'll come after you again?" Fluttershy spoke up tremulously.

"I wouldn't have thought so," Twilight murmured. "At the end she seemed to have accepted her fate. And she had me at her mercy after the Purging and did nothing. I can't see a reason for her to rush to Ponyville to confront me."

"Not to mention she wouldn't win, no unicorn's a match for our Twilight," said Rainbow Dash.

"Not when I've got the five of you behind me, certainly," Twilight replied. "I think it's much more likely that she's run away to get away from me, from her past, from everything. Wherever Breaking Dawn is I expect it's far away from here. That's why we're not going to do anything."

"Nothing?" Rainbow demanded.

"If Breaking Dawn comes to Ponyville looking to pick a fight with me then I won't back down," Twilight Sparkle declared. "And I won't let her hurt anyone I care about in the process. But just because I'm a princess doesn't obligate me to suddenly become Equestria's sheriff, leaping all over the place hunting down fugitives who may be trying to redeem themselves. I'm not going to go looking for trouble, and I don't want any of you looking for it either," she looked at Rainbow Dash significantly. "Princess Celestia hasn't asked me to do anything expect be aware and keep an eye out. So that's all I'm going to do."

Fluttershy looked a little relieved. So did Applejack. To be honest, Twilight didn't think that any of them really felt like another adventure at this point. Especially since their last 'adventure' with Breaking Dawn hadn't exactly been a barrel of laughs.

"Oh, and Spike," Twilight added, "I don't see that there is any need to inform Captain Lancer about all this. He'll just worry out of proportion."

Spike cleared his throat, "Read the P.S."

Twilight opened the letter again and looked down to the bottom.

_P.S_

_Twilight, since I know that in all probability you will not take this warning too seriously and choose not to inform the Captain of your Guard that a pony who has already made an attempt upon your life has escaped and may well seek to attack you again, I have sent Spike a second letter to be delivered into the hooves of Captain Lancer before he gives you this note. This letter explains everything to him. I hope you will allow him to do what he thinks is best to keep you safe._

Twilight groaned, "Did I suddenly become made of glass when Princess Celestia put a crown on my head? Why is it I have less say over my personal affairs then I did when I just a student?"

"One, two, three, four," Pinkie said.

"Pinkie, what are you doin'?" Applejack asked.

"Your Highness!" Lancer hailed from the entrance to the farm.

"Five!" Pinkie Pie finished cheerfully. "Bang on schedule!"

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Captain. Good morning."

"Your Highness," Lancer stopped in front of her at rigid attention. "You've heard the news?"

"I honestly don't think it's anything to worry about," Twilight said. "I think Breaking Dawn was genuinely surprised that I wasn't an evil monster, and I think that that made her very uncertain about what she was doing. I don't think she'll try to hurt me again."

"You'll forgive me, Highness, if I don't want to trust your safety to that," Lancer said. "I have some ideas for tighter security which I'd like you to sign off on."

Twilight waved one hoof in front of her, "Let me hear them."

"I want to assign a personal close guard detachment─"

"Absolutely not," Twilight said firmly. "I am not having my every moment shadowed by a group of burly stallions. I'm entitled to a private life. No. You'll have to think of something else."

Lancer sighed, but from his expression Twilight guessed he had expected to lose that one, "Will you at least consent to guards on the homes of the Elements of Harmony, Your Highness? If Breaking Dawn makes an appearance she will likely to one of those six places, and it would be good to have somepony waiting for her at all times."

"She can't get up to my place unless she grows wings," Rainbow Dash said. "And that's not gonna happen."

"Unless she has a spell that lets her grow them butterfly wings like Rarity had," Applejack reminded her.

"I'd still like to put a pegasus up there just in case," Lancer said.

"He's not gonna want to come in, is he?"

"Not without good cause, no."

"I wouldn't mind, so long as he doesn't deserve any of my critter friends," Fluttershy said.

"Or the customers at Sugarcube Corner," Pinkie Pie added.

"They won't be there to put ponies off, just to stop maliciously minded ponies from trying anything," Lancer said pacifically. "I assure you, they won't frighten anypony, although hopefully they will discourage wrongdoers."

Twilight looked around her friends, "Does anypony have a problem with that?"

They all murmured their assent, even Rainbow Dash if a little reluctantly. So Twilight said, "Very well then, anything else?"

"I want to step up the patrols around town, catch her before she makes it here if she's coming," Lancer said. "We'll try to be unobtrusive."

Twilight nodded, "That is...surprisingly reasonable for you, captain."

"Perhaps I've just gotten good at knowing what will and won't fly with you ma'am," Lancer said. "And that is all I needed to discuss with you, Your Highness so, with your permission, I'll let you get back to breakfast."

* * *

Virtuous Fury, who had been known as Virtue to his friends and was now referred to as such by his unwelcome mistress, sat under the shade of a tree in the Everfree Forest, the knots and tangles of the tree bark digging into his back, reading a book.

Well, not precisely. His mother, bless her, had never gotten around to teaching him to read in the too-short season allotted to her, and so all Virtue was able to do was stare at the pages and the black spidery letters stamped all over them without the meanest scrap of concentration. His mother had read to him, and his brother and sister, when they were young, and later on Glory or Vigilant had been good enough friends to read to him when he was feeling out of sorts. But there was no one in this company he liked half so well that he would ask them for such a favour, none before whom he would disarm himself enough to let them know his dreams, see his fears, perceive his vulnerabilities.

There were none, more to the point, whom he would allow to share with him in anything which had until then been the preserve of those ponies who commanded a special place within his heart.

And so he sat with his back to a tree, ignoring the scratching sensations as he did so, and stared at words he could not read. Some of them he remembered, words memorised from having them read to him over and over again, and as he mouthed them to himself he could almost hear his mother's voice reading it out to him as he sat with Gem and Felix before the hearthfire every night.

"Virtue against fury shall advance the fight,

And in the combat soon shall put to flight,

For the old Roman valour is not dead,

Nor in Italian hearts extinguished," Virtue murmured. He had always liked that one because it had seemed to be about him. He had no idea who the Romans or the Italians had been ─ the Hippokastaian traders would share only the meanest scraps of knowledge with their trading partners ─ but as a colt the idea of reviving ancient traditions, being the inheritor of Chevalia's venerable legacy of chivalry and courage, had appealed to him. Had not his mother raised him so, to be the Last Firstborn of Old Chevalia, the pony who would grow up to save his world and lead it into a new golden age?

Now, of course, the little poem resonated more in the sense of the two halves of himself being pitched against one another in battle. He just wished he could be so sure of virtue's triumph as that long dead human had been.

_Or even Virtue's triumph, if it comes to it._

He heard hoofsteps coming towards him, so he slammed the tattered old book shut between his hooves and stuffed it into his knackered old saddlebag. These Equestrians and the like knew nothing of other worlds beyond their own, had never heard of humans or their works, and he was not keen to change that. Words had a magic more powerful than that of unicorns, as it was said, and he was not at all sure these zebras and folk could be trusted with such power.

Two of the Greyvian zebras approached, their faces painted in the green and gold colours of House Mesaesuli. Virtue stood up as they drew close. The Grevyians were big fellows, larger than ponies and other zebras both, but he matched them for height and build even without his horn.

"What is it?" he demanded.

"The troops are spreading out through the forest," one of the zebras said. "We are establishing camp now. Some of our scouts captured a prisoner as they were sweeping the forest."

"A prisoner?"

"A Quaggai, claims she lives here," the zebra said.

"Show me," Virtue said, and followed the two warriors towards the camp the Grevyians were busy establishing under the cover of the Everfree Forest. Virtuous Fury did not have a high opinion of the Grevyian Army, from what he had observed of it in its natural habitat, but he had to admit that they had made good time across Equestria, not being spotted and making it to their objective quickly. Of course it helped that they had only three hundred elite troops to move. Whether or not that would help them take ponyville was another matter altogether.

The camp was divided into three parts, making it almost seem like three warcamps coincidentally conjoined, according to which of the great houses the soldier's served: Mesaesuli, Masylii, Makkai. Their brightly coloured banners hung in the centre of each house's section of the camp. The zebras ─ they were all zebras, as Virtue did not rate the buffalo and Emerald Ray did not care enough to fight with him over it ─ in each camp did not look at the zebras in the other two camps, as though by so doing they could pretend that they were not being forced to work with their bitter rivals. No overt trouble had yet occurred, but it was not good for an army to be so divided amongst itself.

_No wonder their empire is in decline if its great lords and their retainers cannot rise above their petty feuding long enough to do anything about it_. In Chevalia such destructive games-playing would never have been tolerated. _I wonder how they would react if they had to share space with the mantids._ Thankfully they tended to keep themselves to themselves, only communicating with the pegasus Shrike. The draghkar were just the same, for which Virtue was sincerely thankful. Just looking at them gave him chills down the spine. Sunset Shimmer's demons were not a great improvement in that regard.

In the centre of the camp was neutral ground, shared space for the troops of all three houses to pass through. It was in this space that four zebras of House Mesaesuli were holding a fifth zebra tight. She was different from the zebra soldiery all around her in that she wore no face paint, but instead wore golden bangles around her neck and legs, and large gold earrings. She said nothing, but looked to be in some discomfort from the way her legs were being twisted.

"There's no call for that I'm sure, let her go," Virtue said.

The zebras looked uncertain.

"I don't like to repeat myself," Virtue said firmly, affixing them with the gaze of his red eyes. When he was a colt, folk had said that his black coat and red eyes marked him as something evil, demon-touched. Even then there had been those who didn't like to meet his eyes, and his glare had only gotten more intimidating now that he was roughly the size of a farmer's wagon. They let he go.

"My apologies, madam, for the rough manner in which you have been greeted by my fellows," Virtue said in his best gentlecolt manner. "I hope you will understand that their caution in this strange place led them to be a little overenthusiastic."

The zebra mare met his eyes without flinching,

"Strange place you say? Strange place indeed,

To find a zebra host of Grevyian breed,

What do they do so far from home,

And why do you armed in Equestria roam?"

"We are not hear to answer your questions, Quaggai _u'asherat_!" one of the Grevyians spat.

Virtue swiped at his face with one hoof, knocking the offending warrior to the ground. He had spent enough time around these Grevyians to recognise the curse words even if he didn't know what all of them meant.

"Next time I hear you speak like that to a lady I'll break your jaw," Virtue snapped. "Get out of my sight." The zebra fled, clutching his mouth.

"You need not worry about my delicate sensibility,

I cast off long ago all such pointless frivolity," the zebra mare said.

Virtue smiled tightly, "Once more ma'am, I can only offer you apologies. It occurs to me that we have not been properly introduced. My name is Virtuous Fury, Knight of Valour at the court of Chevalia."

"Zecora plain and simple is my name,

I have no fancy titles or far fame."

"And yet a pretty name it is," Virtue said. "Ma'am, if I may ask, do you live here?"

"Within the Everfree Forest is my hut," Zecora said.

"I raised it long ago, when pony words still cut."

"A dank, gloomy, rather dangerous place to call home if I may say so ma'am," Virtue said.

"I am used to it, I know the forest's every eve," Zecora replied.

"If you dislike these woods, the best cure would be: leave." She smiled at him with a hint of mischief.

Virtue regarded her evenly, "You said 'when pony words still cut'. May I take it that you are not a friend to inhabitants of Ponyville, the town that lies beyond these woods?"

"They once considered me a witch full of danger,

And consequently I remained to them a fearful stranger," Zecora said.

"But thanks to the kindness of young Apple Bloom,

They, for me, in their hearts have made some room."

Virtue smiled another tight lipped smile, "I will be blunt ma'am. If I release you will you running down to Ponyville telling tales about our gathering here?"

Zecora matched his smile with one of her own, a knowing smile that said she saw through all his bluster and his courtesies.

"I am no pony, in the ways of the world I am wiser than they,

If that is something I, without sounding over proud, may say," Zecora said.

"Quick to forgive, quick to trust, for which I love them,

But flattery and words soft spoken move them,

More easily than they will me. I see your spears,

Your shields, your armour giving substance to my fears,

You mean the little ponies harm in yonder town,

And I will stop you, for they are as tribe my own."

Virtue stood up, "That is a pity, ma'am, if bravely spoken. I am afraid I must insist upon you enjoying our hospitality a little longer. Tie her up and gag her, but us no more force than is strictly necessary or I will repay it on you."

He sighed deeply as they dragged Zecora away. _Integrity: a knight shall act with fairness and honesty even to his most bitter foes. So much for that. _Had he been his own master, commanding a Chevalian attack force in the service of his princess, he would have let mistress Zecora go and given her one hour to spread word of his coming before commencing his attack. But he was not his own master, and for the sake of his princess and his comrades dear he served the whims of Sunset Shimmer. He could do nothing without her word, least of jeopardise her assault upon this land. What she might do to Chevalia in her wrath was too terrible to contemplate.

A deafening roar split the air, accompanied by the sounds of panicked yelling. Zebra scouts burst into the camp in a state of chaos and confusion. There was another roar, and Virtue looked up to see a manticore hot on their hooves.

The beast was the size of a hill at least, with ears that looked like horns upon its head they were so large and sharp. Each one of its paws was the size of any Grevyian warrior. It's scorpion's tail was as almost as long as its body.

It advanced resolutely upon their camp, bellowing its anger with every heavy step it took.

"Spears! Shields!" Maharbal, the Makkai captain, yelled.

"Hold!" Virtue shouted. His own lance and blade were not far away, but he ignored them as he strode swiftly but unhurriedly out of camp straight towards the angry creature. "I'll deal with this myself." He felt dirty after his treatment of Zecora, he needed to do something to clean himself up.

The manticore halted to let him approach, waiting for Virtue to draw near. The two faced each other, the big black unicorn dwarfed by the mighty creature. The manticore let its crimson wings spread wide across the clearing.

Virtue pawed the ground, grinning manically as he waited for it to strike, "Come on then. Are you a demon of this land or nature-born? Whatever you are, come on. Show me what passes for strength in this place."

The manticore pawed the ground in turn, growling angrily.

Virtue scowled, "What, are you waiting for me to take a thorn out of your paw you great brute? Come on and hit me if you can!"

The manticore leapt. Virtue sidestepped enough so that the manticore's swipe wouldn't kill him, not so far that he escaped altogether. He laughed as the manticore's claws scored his shoulder, then reared up on his hind legs and roared as he struck the beast in the middle of the face.

The manticore howled in pain as it was hurled backwards by Virtue's hideous strength, crushing trees beneath its bulk. Virtue advanced upon it.

The manticore growled, trying to get back up on its feet.

Virtue hit it again, slapping the creature down into the ground, "Stay down!"

The manticore looked at him, the look in its eyes changing from hostility to...recognition.

"You've the right of it friend," Virtue murmured. "I am a monster too, and more hideous than you."

He allowed the manticore to get up. It stared down at him, making no sound but a purring so soft he barely heard it. Slowly, in minute movements, it bowed to him.

Virtue placed one hand upon its nose, rubbing it gently. He whispered, "Go. We will leave you be, I give you my word."

The manticore snuffled, glared at the zebras in their camp, then turned and scampered off into the dark recesses of the forest.

"Well you're just full of surprises aren't you?"

Virtue wasn't sure if it was his gravelly voice or his ever-present sarcastic tone that made him hate it every time Emerald Ray opened his mouth, but he did. Slowly, he turned around to face the crystal pony...warrior. He would not accord this bloodthirsty wretch the title of knight, however they debased that title in this Crystal Empire of his.

"What, in particular, surprises you?" Virtue asked. "That I didn't kill it?"

"I would have," Emerald Ray said.

"I did not see you in the vicinity when it looked as thought it might attack," Virtue remarked acidly.

Emerald Ray grinned, "I prefer fighting ponies to animals. Beasts, after all, don't know any better. They just eat and sleep and then get up to do it all over again. You have to fight ponies or creatures with intelligence to see real fear in their eyes. To be honest though, what surprised me was that it understood you when you told it to get gone. Usually animals like that fight to the death. You sure you aren't missing a cutie mark in working with animals."

Virtue regarded him levelly, _If you think to bait me with my blank flank you are a few years late._ To have spoken would have been to rise to it, however, so he simply said, "On my world it is said that those possessed of an animal violence, can talk to violent animals. We call it the beast-blood. When I was a colt I used to go play with the wolves in the woods not far from home." _Before the smooze rolled through it._

"Sounds idyllic," Emerald Ray replied sarcastically. "You might want to get that shoulder wound checked out."

Virtue looked at the three red scars on his right shoulder, "I'll be fine. Any sign of Mistress Sunset?"

"None," Emerald said. "Of course, we shouldn't expect her before dusk anyway."

"Why," Virtue stopped. Then groaned, "Honestly?"

Emerald Ray chuckled.

Virtue sighed, "Very well. Since we still have daylight left I'm going into town."

"What for?"

"I want to see what kind of a foe we have been brought here to fight," Virtue said. "Are you not curious to find out on what manner of pony Mistress Sunset means to loose us."

"A soft manner, if my memory serves me right," Emerald Ray said. "But go on if you want. I'll be here waiting."

Virtue nodded, and put the crystal pony behind him as he strode out of camp and out towards the town of Ponyville. The eaves of the forest thinned out the further he got from the zebra camp, until he could peer through the leaves and see the town that was their target spread out beneath him.

Virtue stopped. He could hear somepony humming nearby. Or...no they weren't humming they were singing, but singing in la-la's instead of with words. It sounded rather pretty. He changed direction and headed towards it. Looking through the trees, pushing some of the branches down with one hoof, Virtue saw a yellow pegasus with a long lilac mane fluttering among the outskirts of the forest, picking herbs to place in a wicker basket at her feet. Her eyes were green, and drooped a little to give her a slightly melancholy air in spite of the cheerful tone of her singing.

She seemed a fair lady, who might have stepped out of one of the tales of Old Chevalia that his mother would tell him. Virtue stepped closer.

A twig snapped under his hoof.

The lady gave a startled cry and dived for cover.

"Please m'lady, wait," Virtue said, stepping out of the woods. "I am sorry. I did not mean to fright you. I...you have a lovely voice, ma'am."

She fluttered up from the ground, hovering at his eye height, "Um, thank you, I think. Um, I don't think I've seen you around here."

"No ma'am, I am not native to this place," Virtue said. "I come from, somewhere very far away from here. I am travelling through on my way home."

"Oh, have you been on a journey?"

Virtue smiled wryly, "It has not ended yet."

"Well, I hope you make it soo─" her eyes widened at the sight of his shoulder. "Oh my, your poor shoulder, what happened to it?"

"A brief encounter with a manticore ma'am, it hurts but a little."

"Oh no, you have to get that cleaned up or who knows what will happen to it," she said. "Come with me right away."

She led him to a cottage not too far from the outskirts of the forest, and led him inside to where a throng of little creatures waited, presided over by a white bunny. There she washed his wound with scalding hot water and put some stinging ointment on it. Her touch was soft, gentle. The gentlest he had felt in many years.

"This will stop you getting sick at all in future," the fair maid said before she bandaged up his scars. "But in future, I always find that it's best to avoid fighting. The animals in the Everfree Forest aren't bad, they're just sometimes driven to desperate things."

"You are fond of animals," Virtue said.

"Oh I think they're wonderful. Each one has a different story to tell. Nothing makes me happier than helping an animal in trouble. My name is Fluttershy."

Virtue kissed her hoof gently, "I am please to make your acquaintance Miss Fluttershy. My name is," he took a deep breath, Sunset Shimmer having made him aware that his name would likely make him a figure of fun in Equestria, "Virtuous Fury."

She did not laugh, as he had expected her too. She merely said, "Oh. That's an unusual name."

"Where I come from we give many names that would be considered unusual here, I have found," Virtue said.

"Is that why you keep calling me ma'am, too?" Fluttershy asked. "That's very unusual as well."

Virtue smiled, "My mother taught me to treat all mares as ladies until they show themselves to be otherwise. You are a very kind person, ma'am. Not many ponies would help an injured stranger they do not know."

"I think almost every pony I know would do the same," Fluttershy murmured.

"The ponies I know would not."

"Then you just haven't met the right kind of ponies," Fluttershy said with an encouraging smile.

Virtue looked at her for a moment, then abruptly turned away and headed for the door, "I thank you kindly ma'am for your help but not I must go."

"But why?"

_Because you are too kind and I am too savage, for me to be in the same room as you is a travesty, _"Because, I have...business."

He fumbled for the door handle with his hooves and let himself out. As he was leaving the cottage, he offered a courteous nod to the guard coming the other way up the green path. The guard ignored him.

_An important pony then. One of Mistress Sunset's enemies? But she seemed so gentle. Who would desire to harm her?_

* * *

For Virtuous Fury, just the act of looking around Ponyville was a strange and bewildering experience.

It was all so...happy. He had never seen so much joy in one place before. It gradually became apparent to him what probably should have been apparent much earlier: these ponies had no worries. They lived their lives free from any kind of danger, nothing threatened the comforts and certainties of their existence. Nothing was outside of their control, everything had been tamed for their comfort and convenience. Virtue half felt that, as a warrior, he ought to have been contemptuous of such luxury, but honestly he could bring himself to feel anything but envy for the way these ponies lived their lives. He envied their safety, their security, he envied their peace, their happiness. He envied their freedom. Most of all he envied that nothing seemed beyond them, there was nothing that they could not do, it seemed, if they wished to try. It reminded him of the legends of humans that the traders told: how the great archmages of Earth's final days could bend the very stars themselves to their will, created steel golems to move mountains and bend rivers, how they had made the world a paradise for themselves as these ponies had done here.

_And as men fell, will these Equestrians fall also? Is that why I am here, to be the harbinger of their collapse, until in thousands of years time lizard folk or insect people will pick over the ruins of Equestria and trade their trinkets to other folk for a princess' ransom?_

_If that is my part to play then I will do it, for my sweet Chevalia._

As he looked around, Virtue was astonished by what a bizarre place Ponyville was. They had a building called a library that was filled with books. So many books, he doubted that even Princess Regal Grace had so many books in the royal palace as there were here. And anypony could come and read them, or take them home to read after giving their word of honour to return them eventually. Anypony! That any society could be so profligate with knowledge, the rarest and most valuable currency of all, amazed and astounded him. In Grevyia the High Bloods hoarded learning as though it were life itself, here they practically threw it up in the air to land where it may.

It was in the library that he caught sight of Twilight Sparkle, the alicorn princess Mistress Sunset feared. She seemed a decent enough sort to him, but even had he not known that she was a princess raised, not born, the sight of her would have told him so. She had none of the graceful elegance that came from being born a blood princess, nor the natural air of command that came from being raised from birth to rule. To be brutally honest he had trouble seeing how she could possibly inspire loyalty when she went around with such a humble, common air.

As for the rest of the ponies, they were not at all what he had expected. He had known that Mistress Sunset was not representative of her country, had known that she was abnormally powerful, but he had been unprepared for how unwarlike the ponies of Ponyville would seem to him. They looked as if they would have no idea how to put up a fight, much less the inclination to actually do so. Their were a few guards here and there, but they did not seem to be especially seasoned troops and he reckoned them for largely ceremonial for all that he knew they had defeated the Grevyians not too long ago. Virtue took that more as a commentary on Grevyian military inadequacy than Equestrian martial prowess. He supposed it was a good thing that they did not know war or strife, but it would do them no good when Mistress Sunset decided to attack.

He was left confused as to her motives however. Where he came from a pony's strength was measured in part by the calibre of his enemies, so what purpose in picking a fight with ponies so weak? It did nothing but show you a coward. And though he would think Mistress Sunset Shimmer many things, cowardly was not one of them.

_That mare is without honour, and for my sins that means I have none either._

"Hey losers, why don't you try and get a cutie mark in sucking, since it seems like that's your special talent."

"Nah, if that was it they'd all have their cutie marks by now, seeing as they suck at something every single day."

Virtue's head turned in the direction of the cackling laughter issuing from his left. Two earth ponies, one pink and the other silver, were tormenting a trio of fillies, one from each branch of the pony family. He quickly saw that while the two bullies had their cutie marks, their three victims were all blank flanks.

"Good point, Silver Spoon," the pink one said. "Maybe if you tried not sucking for a day you'd finally get somewhere with your stupid crusading."

"For those three? That's impossible," the one called Silver Spoon said, leading to more mocking laughter as the three fillies shuffled off in search of their dignity.

Virtue frowned, and though it was none of his business he nevertheless changed direction towards the scene of the torment. The two bullies first noticed him when his shadow blocked out the light of the sun. He found he rather enjoyed the frightened expressions of their faces as they looked up at him. There were times when it was quite fun to look Evil with a capital E.

Virtue leaned down, his red eyes gleaming, "You know, I've been wondering what I could try getting cutie mark in myself and you two gave me an idea for something I haven't tried before."

"What's that?" Silver Spoon asked nervously.

Virtue grinned savagely, the way he smiled in the midst of battle that had convinced so many of his opponents that he was mad, "Cannibalism."

The two bullies screamed and beat a hasty retreat. Virtue sniggered. He turned to look at the three blank flank fillies, "I was joking, in case you hadn't realised. I'm not going to eat anypony, I just wanted to get rid of those two for you."

"Uh, thanks I guess," the yellow earth pony with a big red bow in her red hair offered. "Say mister, are you really a blank flank at your age?"

Virtue looked back at blank black flank, "I wouldn't be hiding a mark if I had one."

The three fillies eyes widened like saucer plates. The earth pony said, "But you must be as old as Big Macintosh!"

"Well I do not know the pony, so I cannot say for certain," Virtue murmured.

"You mean I might still not have mah cutie mark when I'm as old as my big brother," the earth pony exclaimed. "That's awful!"

"That's terrible!" the pegasus wailed.

"That's," the unicorn began. "Hey, what's worse than terrible?"

"Atrocious?" Virtue suggested.

"That's atrocious!" the unicorn declared. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, young lady," Virtue replied with a smile.

"Why do you think you never got your cutie mark?" the orange pegasus asked.

Virtue shrugged, "If I had to guess, I would say it was because the things that needed to be done back home didn't give everypony the chance to find out what they loved doing." That was a lie, or half of one. He enjoyed fighting, and he was good at it, so he had always been a bit miffed that a warrior cutie mark had never arrived. Not that he was annoyed or upset about it or anything, he'd gotten over that years ago. But he was confused that he knew exactly who he was and yet his flank was still bare. _Maybe it's my magic problem._

"What d'you mean?" the little earth pony asked him. "You don't think we'll be as old as you and still not find our cutie marks do you?"

"I'm sure you'll find things much easier going," Virtue replied reassuringly. "Where I come from─"

"There you are, I was getting worried about you."

Virtue looked up to see Emerald Ray standing not far away, a hungry look on his face. Half unconsciously, Virtue moved to place himself between Emerald and the three fillies.

"Hello, friend," Virtue said. "I did not expect to see you here."

Emerald Ray grinned, "Another, friend, of ours just joined us. Shrike, remember her? She wants to see you. She just got back from visiting our old pal Sunny."

"Is that so? I shall come back with you then," Virtue said. "Right now?"

"So soon? Surely I've got a little time to look around," Emerald Ray said. "Perhaps one of these kids could─"

"I think we should hear all about Sunny together," Virtue nearly hissed through his teeth. "And without delay."

Emerald Ray laughed, "Suit yourself." And he allowed Virtue to lead him out of Ponyville and back up towards the Everfree Forest.

"Nice looking place, from what little you let me see of it," Emerald Ray opined.

"Indeed," Virtue said. "Not very strong though. I was hoping that this land would have some great warriors against whom I could test myself. But based upon Ponyville it seems there will be a great dearth of worthy opponents here."

"Good."

"Good?"

"The best kind of enemy is the one who can't fight back."

"You are a brute beast in a pony skin," Virtue said coldly eyeing Emerald Ray out of the corner of his red eye.

Emerald Ray leered, licking his lips with his tongue, "I know, isn't it amazing?"

Virtuous Fury shook his head, but kept from Emerald Ray the most important reason why he had wanted Ponyville to be a kind of fortress, full of strong opponents.

Because then he could have felt about attacking it.


	5. The Labyrinth Box

Chapter 5

The Labyrinth Box

The night sky glittered with stars, the moon sitting proud in the centre of the blue, casting its silvery light upon the slumbering world.

"Looking up at this, you can see why Lady Nightmare became so angry," Shrike said, her tone soft and musing. "The beauty of the night surpasses anything that might be found by day."

"Mmm," Sunset Shimmer murmured noncommittally. Truth to tell she had never really found much beauty in night or day. They just were. It would be like appreciating the aesthetics of the way trees were positioned in a forest. She was rather more interested in the town that lay spread out beneath them. Mustang was only a little larger than Ponyville, and only a short journey away from that town. The buildings were a little old fashioned, historic would have been the polite word, but well kept and easy on the eyes. A sign at the edge of town welcomed visitors, inviting them to enjoy their stay.

At the moment, Mustang slumbered under the starry sky, nopony stirring out of doors save for Sunset Shimmer and Shrike as they crept through the streets towards the centre of town.

In the town square, parked beside a statue of the town's founder, a wooden wagon with a red roof sat. It was modestly sized, but large enough for a pony to live in if they didn't mind the tight quarters.

_Strange, I never figured Trixie could accept privations. I wouldn't have thought that she could live like this. Then again, her most treasured possession was always her ego._

"Keep watch," Sunset instructed. "Make sure no one sees us sneaking around."

"Right," Shrike acknowledged, her dark blue eyes glancing in all directions.

Sunset crept around to the front of the wagon, to the section that would drop down to serve as a stage during shows, where a sign stuck to the cart side proclaimed _The Great and Powerful Trixie, Magician Extraordinaire!_ A slightly smaller notice added _Available for Children's Parties_.

Sunset chuckled softly, "How are the mighty fallen. You were never brilliant, Trixie, but I never thought you were so lacking in ambition. Or was it just easier for you to soak up than to stretch yourself at all?"

For a moment, she wondered if she had wasted her time coming here. After all, there was nothing more contemptible than mediocrity and Trixie appeared to have settled into very comfortable mediocrity indeed.

But then, Trixie had never been a threat to her because of her power, but because of what she might know.

_We were friends, once. My mistake that, I didn't know what I know now. I confided in her, told her my secrets, my dreams. If she should use that knowledge against me...I cannot take the risk. _

_Anypony who can see your heart can hurt you with the things they saw there. If I had learnt that earlier, I would not have had to drag you into this. I'm sorry. _

Sunset Shimmer padded round to the back of the cart, and it was the work of moments to magic open the lock and swing open the door. Stepping carefully, anxious to avoid a creaking step, Sunset climbed the wooden ladder into the interior of the travelling wagon.

It was, as she had expected, very cramped. A camp bed took up half the length of one side of the wagon, where Trixie slumbered beneath a blanket sewn with silver stars.

_Is it me, or didn't you have that blanket when we were at school?_

Trixie snored loudly, and turned over. She had a mask over her eyes, which meant that Sunset was free to illuminate the wagon with her horn without fear of waking the sleeping stage magician.

Trixie's hat and cloak were hung at the back of the cart, just above a stock of fireworks and other props. A small desk on the wagon's left side, opposite the bed, contained some show booking details and a diary of appearances. The diary was less full than Trixie would have doubtless liked.

"Poor dear," Sunset murmured. "At least you won't need to worry about that where you're going."

Taking a blank sheet of parchment from the desk, Sunset cast a simple spell ─ simple for her, anyway ─ upon it and then began to write.

_The Princess Twilight Sparkle requests the presence of the Great and Powerful Trixie in the ruined palace of the Royal Sisters within the Everfree Forest at noon tomorrow. This is a matter of great confidence, so tell nopony where you are going or why. Come quickly, come alone and you will learn something to your great advantage. _

Sunset set the paper down upon the desk, in a prominent place so that Trixie could not fail to notice it.

Turning, she gave one last glance to the mare who had been her closest companion in her school days.

"You always knew how to flatter me," Sunset murmured, before leaving. She shut the door with unnecessary force, making a slamming sound. She heard the sound of Trixie stirring inside, and Sunset and Shrike scrambled to get out of sight.

Sunset Shimmer grinned as they waited in the shadows, watching the cart from which no sound came. Then, after just a little while, Trixie emerged. Her wizard's hat was on her head, her magic cloak was draped over her and fastened around her neck by a diamond brooch. As Shrike and Sunset watched Trixie shut up her wagon and, without a word to anypony, set off north in the direction of Ponyville.

"You're turn, Dawny," Sunset murmured.

* * *

While Sunset Shimmer's curse, spell, whatever the hay she'd done to put Breaking Dawn under her power, Dawn was forced to continue playing the proverbial thief in the all too real night, and crept into Ponyville.

She recognised Lyra Heartstrings, one of the juniors from school over whom Dawn had lorded it when her star had been in the ascendant and whom had given Dawn grief as soon as she lost Celestia's favour, out for a walk with a cream coloured earth pony with a blue and pink mane. Breaking Dawn dived for cover behind the gingerbread-house shaped patisserie and waited for them to pass by. Even assuming that Twilight hadn't told everypony all about the mare who had tried to ruin her, the usual awkward embarrassment of exchanging pleasantries with somepony you went to school with but didn't like very much would have been a hundred times worse in this instance, and Dawn didn't even want to contemplate.

_'Oh, hey, Breaking Dawn, we were at school together. Hi, it's so great to see you after so long. Meet my marefriend. Hear about my awesome life. What are you up to these days?'_

_'Well, Lyra, I committed treason when I tried to drive Princess Twilight Sparkle crazy and take her throne, then I got turned to stone by Princess Celestia, and now I'm on the run under the control of the world's biggest jerk. Okay thanks, let's talk more often!' I don't think. _

Thankfully, the two mares were too preoccupied making dreamy eyes at each other as they strolled through the moonlight to notice the criminal hiding in the shadow of a bakery, so Dawn was able to wait until they had passed on their way before she emerged into the street again.

She tiptoed towards the town library, knowing that that was where Twilight Sparkle would be found. She was not sure how she knew that though. She had never been here before, and yet she knew her way around Ponyville like a native.

_You may not know it, but I do._

Breaking Dawn came to a halt, feeling a chill in her chest that was only matched by the sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Sunset?" she asked quietly.

There was a cackling sound inside her head, _Surprise!_

Dawn frowned, _It wasn't enough you can compel me to do whatever you want but you're in my head as well?_

_What's the matter, Dawny? Don't like the taste of your own medicine? Or did you think Shining Armour enjoyed having you compel him to confess to poisoning his wife?_

"How do you know about that?" Dawn demanded.

_I have my ways, Dawny, but that's not important right now. What is important is that you get over to that library, enchant the paper and write the note just like I tell you. _

Scowling and snorting in futile anger, Dawn crept the remaining few yards over the library. There was a window open, just ajar, and Dawn pushed it open a little more before poking her head inside.

The interior of the library was dark, lit only by a single candle burning in one corner. A book, some kind of history that Dawn vaguely recognised, sat open on the table. An owl sat on his perch with his eyes shut. Abruptly, the bird's yellow eyes snapped open.

"Woo─"

Dawn's horn glowed golden as she hit the bird with a stunning spell, knocking the owl to the library floor.

_That was casually done._

"After everything I've already done I don't think Twilight Sparkle can think worse of me just over an owl," Dawn growled, squeezing herself in through the window to land on the library floor not as quietly as she would have liked.

She paused, listening. The sound of draconic snoring issued from the living quarters upstairs.

For a moment, Dawn considered screaming. Twilight and her little dragon would wake up, rush downstairs and it wouldn't be hard for the most gifted student to ever walk the halls of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns to subdue Dawn if she didn't put up a fight. Then little Sunset Shimmer's plan would fall apart like a house of cards and─

Dawn's chest constricted tightly, something wrapping tight around her heart and causing pain so intense that Breaking Dawn would have screamed had not something been squeezing her throat at the same time, blocking any sound from escaping. Dawn collapsed to the floor, scrabbling futilely with her hooves as she fought for breath.

_Ah, ah, ah Dawny. You don't want to go making me really mad do you?_

The pressure in Dawn's neck and chest eased, and she took great gasping gulps of air as her eyes watered. She lay there, on the floor of the Ponyville Library, contemplating how far she had fallen.

_And I thought being an unemployed pony in Canterlot was as low as it could get._

_You never had it so good, did you Dawny?_

_It's Breaking Dawn to you._

_No. No it really isn't. Now unless you want Princess Twilight Sparkle to find your body on the floor come morning time, why don't you get over to that desk and write the letter?_

_Why? So you can kill me later?_

_Oh don't say it like that. I'll be out of your head soon if you do as I say._

_I'll bet._

_Okay, how about you do as I tell you or I'll stuff your chef friend inside her own oven and serve her up to the rest of your gang for supper._

_Cherry?_ Dawn's blood ran cold at the thought of the mildest of her friends being confronted by Sunset Shimmer. _Why you little─_

Breaking Dawn gasped as her chest began to constrict again.

_I know where they live, what they do. I even know about the zebra filly you rescued from the Grevyians. And I will get to them. Do you think you can stop me?_

Dawn hung her head, defeated, "No."

_Then do as your told and be quick about it._

Cursing under her breath, Dawn approached Twilight Sparkle's study desk. Under the telepathic direction of Sunset Shimmer, she enchanted a sheet of paper with a spell Dawn didn't recognise. She couldn't even work out what it was supposed to do. It had vague similarities to a glamour, but it had no visual effect: after she had cast the spell the piece of paper looked just the same. And Dawn could still write on it, as she proved when she picked up one of Twilight's quills and set it scratching across the paper, her magic moving at the direction of Sunset Shimmer.

_You do realise that she will stop you, whatever you're up to._

_Why so sure?_

_She stopped me._

_I'm not you. I've got talent. And a plan. Now get out of there. I don't want you seen by anypony._

_And where shall I go, mistress?_

_Sarcasm doesn't suit you Dawny, don't do it again. I want you come to me, my little dove. In the Everfree Forest. Your feet will know where to go._

Sunset's presence in Dawn's head receded a little, as Breaking Dawn's hooves took on a life of their own and began to move without instruction from her will, carrying her back out the window and out of Ponyville, heading towards the vast expanse of the Everfree Forest. The darkness made the trees seem monstrous, twisted things, creatures with sharp fingers and gnarled arms erupting from the ground to pounce upon the unwary.

A fitting hiding place for the most monstrous thing of all.

_I never thought I'd think this but, good luck Twilight Sparkle. _

Dawn's hooves carried her into the woods, and were not particularly choosy about the path by which they led her own. Her golden coat was scratched by branches, stung by brambles, torn at by thorns as Dawn was brought by the most direct root regardless of the difficulty of the ground. As she ran through the night, the trees surrounding her seemed to take on evil visages, snarling faces full of teeth roaring their rage towards her. All this in counterpoint to the very real roars of manticores and ursae echoing through the forest.

_I hate the countryside, _Dawn thought. _Give me city streets any day, at least there are no monsters in Canterlot._

"Really? I think someponies could make a case for you after the things you did, little Dawny," Sunset Shimmer chuckled as Dawn emerged from a thicket ─ there were leaves and nettles tangled all through her red and white mane, and her tail felt as though it was dragging half the forest caught in its strands ─ onto the outskirts of a wide camp which took up the entirety of a forest clearing. Zebras, big Imperial Zebras from Grevyia, sat around their cooking fires in groups of eight or ten, brewing stew from clay bowls. The flames danced upon the canvas bivouacs that littered the clearing, covering the whole area and extending into the trees all around. Above them hung various colourful banners, the colours mirrored in the warpaint the zebras wore upon their faces. They regarded her evenly, with some suspicion and a lot of hostility but, thankfully, no violence.

_Great. More zebras, because that went so well the last time._

Dawn wondered if they meant to kill her, to avenge her betrayal of Lord Mathos in Canterlot.

Sunset Shimmer's laughter rang through the forest, "Trust me, Dawny, these zebras don't care a hoot for Lord Mathos or House Aethiope. In fact House Makkai did very well out of their fall, so they probably owe you thanks."

Dawn found Sunset Shimmer at the centre of the camp, warming herself beside the largest fire, accompanied by two buff and burly stallions who both watched her intently.

"Everypony this is Breaking Dawn, who paved the way for our coming here. Say hello to all the nice folks, Breaking Dawn."

Dawn found herself opening her mouth despite herself, heard words coming out of her mouth even though she had no desire to speak them, "Hi there everypony! Sure is great to meet so many new friends!"

Some of the zebras laughed at Sunset's little pantomime. So did the green earth pony stallion sitting at her left hoof. Sunset Shimmer just grinned manically.

"Come over here Dawny, sit by me," she patted a space to her right.

She released a little of her power over Dawn, but Dawn really had no choice in the midst of this armed host but to do as she was told and so she trod through the dust of the clearing towards the great fire, circling around the flames to where Sunset Shimmer sat in the midst of her great company. She was draped in robes of many colours, dancing upon the fabric, constantly shifting, as if Sunset had been unable to decide what colour to wear so had decided to wear all colours. It made Dawn dizzy just trying to keep track of them, so bewildering was it to her eye. Sunset Shimmer sat with utter authority, fearing nothing and expecting nothing but complete obedience.

With one hoof, she patted the ground where she wished for Breaking Dawn to sit.

Silently, Dawn sat down, studying the two stallions who sat with her gaoler. One was an earth pony, with a dark green coat and a lime green mane. No, not an earth pony although he looked that way. Dawn could see his coat sparkling in the firelight. One of those crystal ponies that had reappeared not too long ago. His eyes were blue, a deeper blue than those of Sunset Shimmer, like the ocean. His cutie mark was...green fire? With a yellow centre? No, it was a yellow comet leaving a green trail. He was heavily built, like a cart horse, muscular and powerful.

The crystal pony turned his blue eyes upon her, leering in a way that made Dawn shiver, "Why hello there, little lady, I wasn't expecting Mistress Sunset's new accomplice to be so...tasty." He licked his lips slowly.

"Leave her be, for pity's sake," the other stallion said wearily. He was a unicorn only a little smaller than the crystal pony, and as sturdily made, with a coal-black coat and deep red eyes. His mane was long and silver white, his tale just the same. His horn curved, in a way that Dawn had read of but never seen before. He sat very still, in contrast to the constant small, shifting movements of the crystal pony, and he had no cutie mark upon his thigh.

Sunset Shimmer chuckled, "You're one to talk of pity, aren't you? You must forgive my henchponies, Dawny, they are always arguing over something. That one over there is Emerald Ray, and the unicorn is Virtuous Fury. Laugh if you want, it's fun to see him get upset."

Dawn did not laugh.

Sunset's eyebrows rose, "You don't find it funny?"

"I don't find this funny," Dawn replied.

"Really? Because I find magical slavery to be a hoot," Sunset Shimmer grinned. "You used to think it was pretty hot stuff yourself, once upon a time."

"I'm not the same pony that I was."

"Oh don't give me that self-help, ponies can change nonsense," Sunset spat. "I know you, Breaking Dawn, I've seen into your black heart. You're the same arrogant, vain, desperate, needy pony that you always were. The only difference is you've seen something that scares you now: me."

Dawn swallowed, "What do you want with me, Sunset?"

"I want you to bring me Twilight Sparkle, and you will," Sunset Shimmer smiled, a smile that never reached her eyes. "I had two reasons for breaking you out of that statue Dawny. The first was because, now that everyone is worried about how you got out and what you're going to do, nopony at all is going to see me coming. And the second is because, well, if I left you sitting in school quad then who knows who might decide to let you out to fight against me. I'd rather have you where I know were you are, and what you're up to."

Dawn swallowed again. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry. She managed to speak, her voice shaking, "What are you going to do with me afterwards?"

Sunset chuckled, her horn glowed with an azure aura as she floated a small box over towards her. It was of an intricate design, covered in ornate and beautiful carvings in swooping, curving patterns that seemed through the magic of observation to add up to something, something that spoke to Dawn even if she could not comprehend its language.

The box sang with power. Dawn could feel it. There was nearly as much magic contained in that box as in the Elements of Harmony themselves. It was incredible.

"What is that thing?" Dawn whispered.

"This is old magic. Zebra magic from before the old ways waned, from before Grevyia began to slide into irrelevance, from the days when unicorns were still squatting in caves and the crystal ponies and the griffons begged for scraps at the zebra table," Sunset Shimmer said. She sounded reverent, no mockery in her voice now, just an academic discoursing upon their field of study. "I had to go to a lot of trouble to get hold of this."

"You mean we had to go to a lot of trouble," Emerald Ray grumbled. "We nearly died getting that trinket and it isn't made of gold."

"All that is gold does not glitter," Sunset Shimmer murmured.

"And what does it do?" Dawn pressed.

For a moment she thought that Sunset, under the spell of the box's power, would tell her everything, confess her plan, her weapons, all of it. But then Sunset Shimmer looked away, and the spell was broken. A sly smile cross Sunset's face.

"You'll find out tomorrow Dawny, don't you worry," she patted Dawn upon the cheek. "Now, I don't want you getting any sleep or anything. We don't want Luna wandering into your dreams do we? Just sit tight and wait till morning. Sunset stood up, and her horn glowed briefly as the fire went out.

"We don't want you getting too warm either, do we?" Sunset grinned. "You might get sick, and that would be terrible."

"Are you sure I'm the petty one?" Dawn asked.

Sunset gave her a twinge of pain in the chest, "Remember what I said about sarcasm now, won't you? Pleasant night, Dawny." With that, Sunset Shimmer took her little box and retired to a tent of cloth-of-gold, the flaps dropping shut behind her.

Emerald Ray leered as he, too, stood up, "It's a pity that we can't get to know each other a little better, Breaking Dawn, but you see the thing is," he leaned in to whisper in her ear, "I'm only really interested in long term relationships."

He chuckled, licking his lips again as Dawn's spine shuddered and she tried to not to let him say how nervous he made her.

Fortunately he retired to his own tent, leaving Breaking Dawn alone with the black unicorn, Virtuous Fury.

She did not look at him, though she was aware of him staring at her. Let him stare. Let them all stare. She was Breaking Dawn, student of Princess Celestia, the Untouchable of the School for Gifted Unicorns, and she would not be intimidated by Sunset Shimmer or the Grevyian army or any of them.

Not that she would let show anyway.

_Come on Dawny, you've been an actual statue. Putting on a stony face shouldn't be too hard for you._

The fires were going out all over the zebra camp now, the Grevyian warriors retiring to their tents, those who were not patrolling the edges of the camp. Night's chill began creeping in, slowly at first then with greater surety and purpose. Dawn stared at the cold dead embers were once a fire had sprung, and shivered in the dark.

She almost jumped as something fell across her back, before she realised that it was a cape. A red cape, with a golden trim at the edge like dancing flames. Dawn clutched it around her gratefully, then looked up into the burning red eyes of Virtuous Fury, the only part of him she could still see distinctly in the darkness.

"Thanks," Dawn said, trying not to sound too appreciative even as she was aware that the haste with which she'd grabbed the thing had probably done that beyond the power of words.

"This is a cold place," he said firmly, and she thought she could make him out sitting down across the firepit from her. His eyes locked with hers.

"You're not going to bed?"

"I do not sleep very well here," those red eyes didn't blink once. "Would you like some help with your mane, ma'am?"

Dawn's mouth flapped open once or twice, "My mane?"

"You cannot like looking like a bush with legs, surely?"

"Well, no but," before Breaking Dawn could finish he had already gotten up, padding away somewhere until she lost sight of his black body in the darkness. The next thing she felt was a brush moving through her mane, forcing out all the twigs, all the leaves, all the brambles, all the thorns. She felt lighter after only a few brushes.

There was a pause, then Virtuous Fury asked, "Is there a particular way you would like your mane or tale styled, ma'am?"

"No, I," Dawn paused. "Don't tell me that you're Sunset Shimer's mane stylist."

He snorted, "No, ma'am, but I used to take care of my sister's mane, and when we where children we would play at styling. The results were not always horrible."

"I think I'll pass," Dawn said in a deadpan tone. She heard him picking up the brush again to continue. "Thanks for this, I guess. I feel a bit more like myself knowing I'm not carrying a birds nest around on my head."

There was another pause as he put the brush down. "It is the least that I can do. Unfortunately it is also the only thing I can do."

"Why do it?"

"All the pieces on the board have their role, each is necessary to achieve victory and all have their honour when gathered under a princess who knows their worth," Virtuous Fury said. "But of all the pieces on the field the pawns are the bravest of all, and the most deserving of compassion. Especially when they did not volunteer."

* * *

_Twilight Sparkle._

_It is time to put this rivalry of ours to an end. Meet me in a duel, if you dare! Come to the Palace of the Royal Sisters in the Everfree Forest, alone, at noon today. Do not keep me waiting._

_Come swiftly, come alone, come soon. My patience will not last forever._

_Your eternal nemesis,_

_Breaking Dawn_

Twilight frowned, "When did Breaking Dawn turn into a pantomime villain? And for that matter, when were we ever rivals?"

There was nopony around to answer her question. Spike was in the kitchen making breakfast, while Owlowiscious was being tended to by Fluttershy at her cottage, Twilight having rushed him there as soon as she came downstairs to see the faithful owl unconscious on the floor. She supposed that was Dawn's work, when she had snuck in to leave this overly melodramatic note.

_And another thing, if she broke into the library why didn't she just go upstairs and attack me? It's not like she was a stickler for a fair fight._

The library was quiet, the only sound being Spike's humming and the boiling of a pot in the kitchen.

Intellectually, Twilight knew exactly what she ought to do. She should show her friends this ludicrous note, rouse Captain Lancer and his guardsponies and lead them all into the Everfree Forest to put Breaking Dawn in irons and haul her back to Canterlot. Certainly she should not entertain this ridiculous notion. A duel to decide their quarrel, when did she think this was? Where they now living in the era of Clover and Hurricane, to settle their disputes by single combat? It was absurd.

And yet.

The more Twilight Sparkle stared down at the words before her, however silly they seemed as they sat upon the page, the more she felt drawn to them. She did want to see an end to this, after all. And it wasn't as though she was scared of Breaking Dawn. Not a bit of it, she was twice the magician that her so-called rival was. She didn't need anypony's help to beat down this impudent challenger.

Twilight shook her head, "This is ridiculous. I'm not some schoolyard stallion who needs to pick fights to prove how tough I am."

But if she did not go, then who could say what fresh mischief Breaking Dawn might create? What if it was not Owlowiscious she attacked next time, but Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie? Last time she had gone after Cadance, she might well strike at more of Twilight's friends if given the chance.

Put like that, it seemed almost her duty to go and confront Breaking Dawn, defeat her once and for all. Framed in such terms, it seemed the only reason not to go into the forest was because Twilight was afraid.

"I am not scared of that mare!" Twilight snapped.

"Um, Twilight, who are you talking to?"

Twilight compulsively hid Dawn's letter, pushing it underneath a heavy history tome. She laughed nervously, "Nopony, Spike. I guess I need to get out of this library before I go stir crazy huh?"

Spike frowned, "You haven't been in here all that much. I mean you sent most of yesterday with Rainbow Dash, and then the day before that we went out mining with Rarity and then─"

"It's still too much!" Twilight said loudly. She laughed nervously, "I just need to, you know, stretch my wings a little. I'll be back a little after noon." It would take her more than a few minutes to subdue Breaking Dawn.

It was a strange sensation as she stepped out of the library and slammed the door behind her. She knew, on an intellectual level, that what she was doing was unwise, but she could not help but do it, and no matter how she examined the problem her choices made perfect sense. Why then, did it feel like she was making the wrong choice?

When she wasn't. Not at all. She was protecting her friends, the way they always rallied round to protect her. She would keep them safe, and she would do so without having to put any of them in harms way to do it.

Twilight caught sight of Pinkie Pie bouncing down Mane Street, and ducked out of sight. The letter had said to come alone, and if any of her friends out where she was going they would insist on going with her. It was for their own good, all of it.

_It isn't as though I'm lying to them if they never actually ask me what I'm up to._

The princess slunk out of Ponyville, creeping up the dirt track that led into the Everfree Forest. She followed the path into the woods, the same path she and her friends ─ though of course on that first night that seemed so bizarre to remember now she had seen them less as friends than burdens ─ had followed on their quest to retrieve the Elements of Harmony and save Equestria from night eternal. Though the thick forest canopy obscured some of the light of the sun, it was nevertheless a cosier experience to walk the path in daylight than it had been on that night of madness.

_So many memories,_ Twilight thought, as she used her new wings to flutter down the landslide that had nearly sent her plummeting to her doom. She paused over the drop from which Applejack had convinced her to fall, knowing ─ as Twilight had not ─ that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy would catch her.

And not far beyond that was the point where they had encountered the manticore, and Fluttershy had tamed it with kindness.

"It feels really weird being out here again," Twilight murmured. "Think of how far we've come, how far we've grown since then. Isn't it funny?" she looked around, remembering too late that there was nopony there to answer.

"Well, it would be if you were here," Twilight grumbled. "Maybe I made a mistake."

_No, I didn't. I made my choice for all the right reasons. Loneliness doesn't change a thing._

_But we are always stronger when we're together. Maybe I should turn back._

_No, I've come too far to just turn around. If I don't keep going, I'll lose this opportunity. I can't turn around, I can't. This is vital._ Why, precisely, it was vital she could not have said, except that she knew instinctively that it was.

So Twilight Sparkle pressed on, through the dense part of the forest where the trees did not seem so scary in the daylight, over the river which was now calm and gentle, and across the rope bridge strung across the gorge. At last, as the sun reached its zenith in the sky, she stood before the ruins of the old palace, its decaying edifice monument to a past chapter of Equestrian history now gone beyond recall.

_Celestia and Luna were truly equals, then. No more._ It was a hard thing to think, and Princess Celestia would doubtless deny it, but she would always be the senior now. How could she not, a thousand years older and more experienced than Luna? It was ironic, in a way, that in her quest to achieve equality with Celestia all Luna had accomplished was to marginalise herself, as much as Celestia worked to give her little sister the respect that was her due.

If Twilight was to have such thoughts, this was the place to have them. The ruins exuded melancholy. While night had rendered them imposing, mysterious, daylight stripped all the glamour from the stones and showed the place for what it was: a hollow shell.

"Will Canterlot look like this one day? Nothing but a ruin for ponies of a later age to gaze at? Will ponies from a thousand years in the future look at what remains of Ponyville and think that it was a small place of no significance, as though all our lives and loves and friendships counted for nothing. Maybe they aren't important in the scheme of things, but they matter, like the lives of the ponies who lived here mattered. And yet nopony remembers them. Like nopony will remember us." Upon that cheery note, Twilight padded inside the ruins.

"Breaking Dawn?" Twilight called. "I've come here like you asked me too, Breaking Dawn. Now are we going to settle this or not?"

Breaking Dawn stepped into view, walking stiffly, holding herself awkwardly, like one of Rarity's ponikins. Her green eyes were wide, almost to the point of eeriness.

Twilight scowled, "Breaking Dawn. So you really did escape just to come after me. I thought you were better than that."

"Twilight Sparkle!" a surprisingly familiar voice bellowed out. "Why have you summoned the Great and Powerful Trixie to this dismal ruin? Trixie is not amused!"

Twilight's eyes became rather wide herself as Trixie emerged from out of the shadows, "Trixie! What are you doing here?"

"What is Trixie doing here?" Trixie laughed sourly. "You sent the Great and Powerful Trixie a note summoning Trixie here? Or do you mean to tell Trixie that this was all some kind of practical joke."

There was a buzzing sound as Chyrsalis, Queen of the Changelings, dropped in through the now open ceiling. She settled herself, preening her green mane before she began to drawl, "You must be the pony Trixie, who has some grand design to take over Equestria─" as soon as she noticed Twilight Chrysalis hissed like a scalded cat, baring her fangs and dropping to a fighting stance, "Twilight Sparkle! What treachery is this?"

"Trixie didn't invite you here, whoever you are," Trixie backed away nervously. "Trixie was invited here by Twilight Sparkle."

"And I was summoned here by Breaking Dawn," Twilight shouted.

Breaking Dawn shook her head, a minute gesture but unmistakeable in its desperation.

"You, you didn't want me to come here?" Twilight said.

"No, I did," a pony with a mustard yellow coat, blue-green eyes and a red and yellow mane like dancing flames appeared on the ruins of the upper floor above them. She was smirking down at the four ponies gathered in the ruins. "Thank you all so, so much for coming. And for coming alone as I asked. Admittedly, you didn't have a lot of choice after I enchanted the paper with a compulsion but all the same I appreciate the effort it took for you to come here. Especially you, Your Majesty Queen Chrysalis. I appreciate it is a long way from the desert."

"You are this Trixie then, who had a pegasus deliver a note to one of my patrols inviting me to this meeting," Chrysalis said. "I presume that Twilight Sparkle was brought here as a sacrifice?"

The pony who had masterminded this meeting merely grinned, "I am afraid not, O Queen. You see," her expression hardened, "I have no use for a pathetic little insect who couldn't even hold Canterlot when it was in her grasp. There is nothing more offensive than mediocrity."

Chrysalis hissed, "Mind who you speak to, pony!"

"Perhaps you should learn who I am before you start to make threats," the mare smiled again. "Trixie, old friend, nice to see you again. You're looking well."

"Sunset...Shimmer?" Trixie murmured.

"And you remember me! Glad to know I made an impression," Sunset chuckled. "I summoned you here for a very specific purpose. To get you out of the way. You see, I've got big plans for this country of ours, and I can't allow any of you to interfere in my design. So as sorry as I am to cut the gathering short, I'm afraid this is goodbye."

Sunset Shimmer produced a box, which she held in front of her in the grip of telekinesis and began to chant, "_Kumasha roho! Roho Yan'doto! Am'keni na'kati'ka giza ku'zi'funga!_"

The intricate pattern of carvings around the box began to glow red, and the box snapped open as purple smoke began to issue from it in quantities far greater than could be contained in such a small space.

Trixie turned to run. Chrysalis hissed angrily and reared up to fight. Twilight's horn blazed with magic as she tried to cast a shield against this smoke and its doubtless ill effects.

She was too late.

She had the sensation of being seized by an inexorable force and born aloft, ripped at hurricane speeds through the air towards Sunset Shimmer and the box she held. Twilight heard Trixie and Dawn yelling wildly, saw flashes of Chrysalis beating her wings in futile struggle against the force which held them. Then she saw nothing further.

* * *

Sunset Shimmer smiled in satisfaction as the Labyrinth Box snapped shut once more, sealing its prisoners tight within its magical depths.

"Worked like a charm," she said to herself.

She leapt easily down to the ground, "Virtue, did you see all of that?"

Virtuous Fury emerged from his hiding place, "Indeed, mistress. Strange that so small a box can hold so much."

"It is a lot bigger on the inside," Sunset said. "Best not to think of it as a box, think of it more as a gateway."

"A gateway to where?"

"A realm of darkness, dreams and deep desires," Sunset Shimmer said with relish. "A place where fears rule, and nightmares are real."

"Can they escape?"

"Only if they realise they are being held prisoner," Sunset replied. "If they can find the way out at the same time as somepony on the outside tries to let them out, they will escape. But that won't ever happen. Not while I keep the box close by me and have Twilight Sparkle's little friends safely in chains beneath my power. That's why we came here, after all. Rouse the zebras, tell them to make ready. We take Ponyville now."

"Now?"

"Why delay?" Sunset Shimmer asked. "The only ponies who could stop us are in this box."


	6. Wizard and Knight, Princess and Queen

Chapter 6

Wizard and Knight, Princess and Queen

The Knight awoke in the middle of a dark forest, her rusted armour creaking and rustling as she sat up.

_What happened? Was I waylaid by robbers on the road? But they did not steal my armour. Or was it simply that my armour is too worn and tattered to be worth stealing?_

She looked around her, and the Knight soon realised that somepony had made off with her lance and sword, her shield too. _Robbers, then._

She pushed back her hauberk and rubbed her sore head with one hoof, shifting her red and white mane around as she did so. She felt ashamed of herself. _A Knight of the Table of Harmony, dubbed by Princess Celestia herself, knocked out and robbed by common bandits. I must be slipping. In the days of Canterlot I would have put them all to flight without sweating._

But then, shining Canterlot was increasingly coming to seem like a dream to her, a dream from which she had awoken to the nightmare that had consumed the world.

The Knight looked up. The sky was pitch black, and devoid of stars. Not a single pin prick glistened in the night. No diamonds adorned Equestria's shroud. The moon had not been seen since Canterlann.

_Strange, that I should know such things but cannot remember where I am or where I was going before I was waylaid._

"So, the warrior awakes. Clearly your prowess is beyond compare."

The Knight looked in the direction of that snide, sneering voice, and realised that she was not alone in this place, wherever this place was.

The Queen stood in her black iron cage, her mane dishevelled and her crown gone, the holes in her legs half filled up with grime and dirt, leaning against the barred walls that contained her.

"Still, you are the first to awake," the Queen continued. "I suppose you deserve some credit for that, anyway."

"I don't need your credit. I don't care what you think of me or anything else," the Knight growled as she got to her feet.

The Queen smirked, her fangs showing, "You shouldn't dismiss my friendship so easily. You may have need of it when my children arrive in search of me."

The Knight laughed, "The bars between us make your threats laughable. Your armies have gone the way of Canterlot and magic."

The Queen hissed at her, but she did not dispute what the Knight had said. There was a time when the changeling menace had made Equestria tremble even when the golden age of Celestia was at its zenith. At the battle of Badon Hill it had taken all the knights in Equestria to turn back the Queen's host. But now the changeling hordes were as scattered, broken and dead as were Celestia's knights, and their queen was a prisoner with words her only weapon.

The other two ponies, lying at the feet of the prison wagon, began to stir. The Knight found herself remembering them, even as she looked at them. An alicorn, her coat lavender, her mane purple, wearing a gown of cloth-of-gold that had seen better days by far Atop her head there sat a crown, discoloured and dull, with a space where a gem should have been but had prised free. Another unicorn, blue with a white mane, wearing a magician's cloak so frayed and patched that she would have looked more prosperous had she thrown away the cloak and her battered hat and forgotten about them.

_The Wizard in her tattered cloak, the Princess 'neath her tarnished crown_, the Knight identified them.

The Princess was the first of the pair to awake, groaning, "Ugh, what happened? Where am I?"

"In a position not so much better than I am, any more," the Queen said, sounding very smug for somepony locked up.

The Princess looked at the Queen, imprisoned in a cage of spiky black iron mounted on top of a wagon, then looked at the empty traces that should have held two ponies to pull the wagon, then all around her at the forest track in which they stood. The Queen's wagon had been left on the side of the dirt road, in one of the places where the trees did not cluster so heavily.

"What's going on?" the Princess demanded. "Where are my servants, where are your guards?"

"Gone. Abandoned you to your fate, clearly," the Queen smiled viciously. "Clearly your friends devotion to you is absolute."

"They were my servants, not my friends," the Princess growled. "When I see them again I'll punish them all." She paused, looking around her again, "And where are my jewels? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I can't loose them. Those jewels were given to me by Princess Celestia before she went to Equilon. I can't loose them, I just can't. Did somepony take them?"

"Probably the same someponies who took my weapons," the Knight said, feeling a pang of jealousy at the fact that the Princess had, or had had, a keepsake to remember Princess Celestia by while her faithful Knight did not.

The Princess turned a baleful gaze upon the Knight, "You. You had something to do with this didn't you? What have you done with my jewels?"

"Me?" the Knight laughed. "If I had stolen from you would I be standing here waiting for you to wake up?"

"Don't you dare lie to me, I know who you are, I know what you are," the Princess snarled as she advanced upon the Knight. "You're the one who brought down Canterlot!"

The Knight stiffened, stepping back as her mouth contorted into a snarl, "It was Luna who destroyed Canterlot, not me."

"Luna brought about the final ruin, but it was you who destroyed the Golden Age," the Princess yelled. "You tarnished everything when you came between Prince Blueblood and his wife. It was thanks to you that knight turned against knight, that Canterlot was riven with war for the first time. Evil would never have entered into the garden but that you allowed it to take root."

The Knight turned away, hiding her face from the Princess' view rather than concede the truth behind the charges. _I am a most ill-made knight._ But she had tried to redeem herself, to make recompense for all her mistakes, her crimes. She had repented and returned to Celestia's light. She had fought beneath the Sun in Splendour at the battle of Canterlann. Wasn't that enough to make amends? Or would she always be judged for what she had done in a moment of weakness.

_Is that why I was not fit to go to Equilon? Was I too stained by wrongdoing to be worthy to make the journey?_

"What are you doing here, if not trying to rob me?" the Princess demanded. "I bet you followed me, waiting for your moment to strike."

"And why would I waste my time doing that?"

The Princess' lip curled into a sneer, "I remember you. You were always jealous of me. You were just another of Princess Celestia's knights, you always hated that I was her favourite."

"You don't seem very favoured to me, Princess," the Knight replied, her voice laced with scorn. "You are here all alone, just like me. Your servants have abandoned you, you have no friends. Will you pull that cart yourself."

The Princess lifted her nose in the air, "The fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends."

The Knight sneered, "If Princess Celestia loves you so much why are you not in Equilon?"

Before the Princess could reply, the Wizard opened her blue eyes and climbed slowly, shakily to her feet, "Will you both be quiet? We are trying to take a nap over here!"

"I don't answer to you," the Knight snapped. She remembered this Wizard, dimly, from the days of Canterlot. She had skulked about the palace, doing her petty tricks, putting on airs unwarranted by her skill. "I am a knight of the Table of Harmony, I don't need lectures from a mage without magic."

"How can you be a knight of the Table of Harmony when the Table is no more and Harmony is shattered?" the Princess asked acidly.

"How can you be a Princess when the kingdom is no more?" the Knight retorted. "For that matter, how can you be a wizard when magic has fled from the world?"

"How can you three still be breathing when you clearly haven't a brain between the three of you?" the Queen murmured.

"Silence!" the Princess snapped.

"Or you'll do what?" the Queen lounged against the bars of her cage. "The angry knight is right in one thing: you won't pull me all the way to the Crystal Empire by yourself, and I don't see your guards coming back to help you."

"I will if I have to," the Princess said. She glanced sideways at the Knight.

The Knight laughed, "Absolutely not. You must be out of your mind to even consider asking."

"My brother the Prince will reward you once we reach the Crystal Empire," the Princess said.

The Knight leaned in, so that her nose was almost touching that of the Princess, "I would rather spit on your cold, dead body that help you do anything. Anyway, I am already pledged to a quest, I will not turn aside from it save to help those who are truly in need." The emphasis she placed upon truly in need made the Princess huff with annoyance.

"What quest?" the Wizard asked.

"I am sworn to hunt the Questing Beast," the Knight replied. "I will not stop till I have run it to the ground."

"Then you will drop dead from exhaustion," the Queen said mockingly. "The Questing Beast cannot be caught, nor would you be able to best it if you caught sight of it. It is a perilous creature."

"Yet I will bring it down, as I am a knight," the Knight said. _Then my honour will be restored._ "When I present the trophy of my victory to the ferry-dragon, I will be granted passage to Equilon for sure." _Then I will be with Princess Celestia, as I ought to be._

"Well, while you're wasting your time chasing down old mare's tales, I will be getting on with saving Equestria," the Princess declared primly. "Then we'll see once again whom Princess Celestia really cares for."

"Save Equestria? Equestria is beyond saving."

"Princess Celestia could save it, if she were in her prime," the Princess said. "When I find the Grail, I can use it to heal the Dolorous Blow that Luna dealt, and then Celestia will return from Equilon, put the griffons to flight and set all Equestria to rights once more."

"And you mock me for my quest," the Knight said. "Find the Grail indeed. The bravest knights sought that chalice and none even saw it."

"If they were all as stupid as you I'm not surprised," the Princess said. "In the Crystal Empire there are books that I can research to help me find the Grail."

"It is magic that will save Equestria, not the princess," the Wizard said. "Princess Celestia abandoned this land, abandoned us. She doesn't care about her little ponies if she ever did."

"How dare you say something like that?" the Princess said, rounding on her angrily. "Princess Celestia gave everything to save Equestria. She killed her sister though it broke her heart because it was the right thing to do!"

"Yeah, who are you to criticise Celestia?" the Knight demanded. "A worm and a charlatan is all you are. Who are you to stare up at the sun and whine the day isn't bright enough?"

"Oh my, do you two actually agree on something?" the Queen asked.

"No!" the Knight and the Princess yelled in unison.

The Wizard stuck her nose up in the air, "We intend to save Equestria the only way it can be saved: by bringing magic back into the world. With the Elements of Harmony we will wield the strongest magic of ponykind, stronger even than Celestia and Luna were at their height. Power is what will save this land, not princesses."

"You really think the Elements of Harmony would choose you as their bearer?" the Princess snapped. "I couldn't even─" She came to a hasty halt.

"You couldn't what?" the Wizard's eyes narrowed. "Your jewels! I heard you mention something about jewels! You had the fabled Elements didn't you! And you lost them! You're not fit to call yourself a Princess of Equestria."

"But I am one all the same," the Princess declared proudly. "Which is more than either of you can say. You can do as you like, I'm done wasting my time with the pair of you."

"Fine," the Knight shouted. "We'll go our separate ways and never see each other again."

"Sounds good to me," the Wizard yelled.

"Ahem," the Queen coughed loudly. "I would hope that a Princess of Canterlot would be so generous as to let me out before leaving me here locked in this cage."

The three ponies fell silent. The Knight was not at all sure she did not hope in vain. She was proud and haughty, this Princess, she had always been so. The favour of Celestia had puffed her up, and her wings had carried her so high she could not see the common ponies down below.

The Princess stalked over to the where the Queen stood in her cage, glaring at her through those lavender eyes.

"Why should I release you?" the Princess demanded, her voice sharp as a knife. "You tried to invade Canterlot, you tried to kidnap my brother's wife. You are my enemy from now until the end of time."

"Oh trust me, honey, I'm not asking to be allowed to join your entourage...or even to start one for you," the Queen said. "But like you idiots have said, magic has gone from the world. I am a Queen without a people. I am...irrelevant," she sounded as though for her to say those words was like chewing glass for her, yet she said them anyway and said them sincerely. The Knight found that she almost admired the Queen for being able to set down her pride like that. _I don't know if I could do that._

"Do I frighten you so much, the shadow of a threat long defeated?" the Queen asked.

The Princess stared at her for a while, then huffed and began to unlock the cage.

"Don't you dare try anything," the Princess warned.

"Princess, if I could kill you you'd be dead already," the Queen said as she leapt from her prison down onto the muddy ground, soiling her black hooves. "In this world I am as powerless as you. Rest assured I'll leave you all alone on your fools' errands. I will seek for the rest of my people, if any changelings can be found."

The Princess nodded, "It's settled then, we'll split up."

"And good riddance," the Wizard said.

The Knight was about to say something cutting, when she was distracted by a rustling from the trees behind her. She turned around slowly. The Queen's wagon had been parked where there was enough space to drag it off the road, but they were far from anything that might be called a decent clearing or meadow. The trees pressed close, sinister in the moonless, starless night. It was impossible to see more than a few feet into the woods, but she could hear something out there. It was making the branches move as it passed. If she pricked her ears and listened close, she could hear something like grunting, or the snuffling of a pig digging for truffles.

"What's the matter, Knight?" the Wizard demanded, her voice dripping contempt. "Are you frightened by the trees?"

"I think I used to know a song to help with that," the Princess murmured. "But now, I find I can't remember how it went."

"Be quiet," the Knight hissed, turning back to glare at both of them and the Queen. "There's something out there and I─"

The demon burst from the trees with a high pitched shriek, a dark cloak flapping behind it as scything blade-like claws snapped out and ready with a metallic ringing sound.

The Wizard screamed in terror, the Princess and the Queen gasped as the demon hurled itself upon the Knight, barrelling into her and bearing the Knight backwards in its onslaught. The creature's claws scythed across her chest, scoring the rusted breastplate and rending the tattered mail. The Knight kicked out with all four legs, but she might as well have been a filly attacking a dragon for all the effect it had. The demon hurled her away like a rag doll, sending her sprawling in the dusty road after she had rolled down it more than a dozen feet.

"A reaper!" the Princess exclaimed. "What's one of them doing out here?"

"Does it matter? What do we do?" demanded the Wizard frantically.

"We fight or we die, what else can we do?" the Queen snarled.

The reaper paused, gathering himself ready for his next attack. Most of the demon's body was hidden within his dark cloak, save for sinewy arms and those scythe-blade claws. But the area where his head was was visible even if his head and face were not, and the Knight could see it twitching this way and that, deciding upon his first victim of the four.

He chose the Queen, leaping on her with an astonishing speed and grace. She hissed, baring her fangs as she charged to meet him, her wings buzzing furiously as she closed the distance between them, the warrior queen of the changeling race ready for battle. She stared the reaper in the face, her nose almost reaching into the shadowed folds of the demon's hood, and she hissed and spat as she danced with him, avoiding his attacks, circling so as to retreat without giving ground, and then she caught one of his claws in one of the holes in her legs and yanked backwards, wrenching the creature off balance. With a triumphant cry she kicked the reaper in the chest with her other foreleg, and ran into a resistance like stone. Her blow just stopped. The reaper chittered coldly, shaking its claws at her.

"Canterlot and the Sun! Celestia!" with a shout, the Knight charged at the reaper, rushing it like a stampeding cow rushes the fence that holds it captive. She struck the demon with her should, but the creature rolled with the blow so that the Knight ended up flying over her and only just managed to land upon her feet, which hurt like tartarus from the impact with the ground. _If only I had my weapons. _

The Queen retreated out of the reaper's immediate range. Which of course meant it turned its attention back upon the Knight.

The Knight pawed at the ground, readying herself to charge, _For Celestia._

A stone struck the reaper on the head. It turned slowly to face the Wizard, who trembled at its mere attention.

"Um, help, anypony," she mumbled, her voice high with terror.

"Hey!" the Princess shouted. She stood inside the cage in which she had only a little while before held the Queen a prisoner. "Hey, monster! Over here! Don't you want to get hold of Equestria's last princess? I'm right here, come and get me!"

_What is she,_ the Knight noticed the Queen edging closer to the cage door. _Oh._

The reaper paused, cocking it's hooded head to one side, chittering and clicking all the while.

"Come on, are you scared?" the Princess taunted.

The reaper took the bait, covering the distance to the cage in a leap and a bound before scrambling into the cage itself, swiping furiously with its claws. It's dark hood fell away, revealing a hairy, spider-like head with four large black eyes and a pair of vicious jaws twitching with excitement. The reaper clicked and whirred as it slashed at the Princess, who flew up to the roof of the cage, just out of the reaper's reach.

The reaper leapt. The Princess dropped. She got behind him, narrowly missing those claws that tore a chunk off her golden gown. The Princess dived out of the cage, "Lock it! Lock it!"

The Queen and the Knight together forced the cage door shut with an iron clang, the Wizard locked it as the Princess lay panting on the ground.

All four of them backed away from the cage as the reaper began to hammer on the ground, growling and roaring in anger, hurling himself upon his black iron prison, slashing at it with his terrible claws.

"How long do you think it will hold it?" the Wizard asked.

"Long enough for us to run," the Queen said.

By unspoken consent, they all ran in the same direction, following the forest road northwards and not stopping until all four of them were too weak, tired and out of breath to go any further. Just to top things off, it stared to rain.

_I really miss the days when pegasi controlled the weather._

Gasping for breath, the Princess looked at each of them in turn, "It's dangerous to travel alone in times like these."

The Knight nodded, "The night is dark and full of terrors."

The Queen shook her head, "As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think any of us will last on our own."

"Perhaps, if we travel together for a little while?" the Wizard suggested. "Just a little. For safety in numbers."

"Agreed," the Queen said.

"Agreed," said the Princess.

"Agreed," replied the Knight. "Though it does not make us friends."

"Of course not," the Princess said acidly. "Who needs friends? Come on, we may not be able to run any more but we need to keep moving at whatever pace."

"Who put you in charge?" the Queen demanded.

"I did, what about it?" the Princess spat. "Now come on, let's move it."

"Where are we going?" the Wizard asked.

Nopony answered, as they continued down the road. Nopony had any idea.


	7. Futile Defiance

Chapter 7

Futile Defiance

Rainbow Dash dozed on top of a cloud. She would sometimes have liked those ponies who begrudged her a power nap in the afternoon to have remembered that the weather didn't stop just because the sun went down, and that sometimes she had to be up right through till it was dawn again managing that weather. So yeah, sometimes she found a nice fluffy cloud and closed her eyes for a few hours, it wasn't like she didn't make up for it.

So Rainbow Dash snored, sleeping the contented sleep of the just and awesome, her forehooves folded behind her head, hind legs twitching slightly against her fluffy perch.

_"Rainbow Dash, you have proven yourself today an exemplary pegasus," Spitfire announced as Rainbow stood before the assembled ranks of the Wonderbolts, assembled in dress uniform on the academy parade ground. Her friends stood nearby, proud expressions on their faces. Princess Celestia observed the ceremony from a discrete distance._

_"By defeating the Dark Lord and his minions single hoofed," Spitfire continued. "As well as performing a quadruple rainboom in the process, you have demonstrated the values of courage, loyalty and all around awesomeness that are the hallmarks of the Wonderbolts. I hereby present you with this medal for valour, and invite you to take up the rank of Captain in the Wonderbolts from this moment on." Spitfire took off her rank pin and stuck it on Rainbow Dash's collar. "Congratulations, captain, you've earned it."_

_As one, the Wonderbolts saluted their new captain, while her friends cheered and Princess Celestia bowed her head in recognition of Rainbow Dash's glorious achievement. _

_Pinkie Pie leapt for her with hooves spread wide, "Congratulations Dashie! You─"_

The loud blast of a trumpet split the afternoon air and Rainbow Dash's eyes snapped open as the refrain assailed her ears. She nearly fell off her cloud, wings spreading wide to catch herself, "What, who, huh?"

The trumpet kept on playing, and Rainbow Dash's panicked expression turned into a scowl of chagrin.

"I thought Twilight had already talked to them about this, come on," Rainbow Dash growled. "What is that guy's problem?"

She was just about to climb back up onto her cloud and stuff her ears with it when she noticed that not only had the bugle call of Twilight's guard been going on for longer than normal ─ annoying as it was it was also normally over quite fast ─ but the actual sound was a more urgent one than normal too. It was...rousing, the musical equivalent of somepony shouting 'Fire!' in the centre of town. Rainbow heard panicked hoofsteps accompanying the trumpet, and from her perch above Ponyville she saw guards and townsfolk alike scurrying to and fro.

"What is going on around here?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking around for the source of the alarm. Her gaze strayed east, to the outskirts of the Everfree Forest.

Her jaw fell, "Whoa."

* * *

Fluttershy hummed softly as she applied an ointment to a nasty lump on the head of a large, for his kind, mouse, who sat rock still and patient beneath her ministrations.

"Now that will dull the pain a little, and if you come back tomorrow for some more medicine, then you should be just fine after a few days," Fluttershy said. "But really, you should try not getting into so many fights Reep."

The mouse squeaked indignantly.

"I know that the squirrel shouldn't have tried to pick you up by the tail like that, but he only meant to play a trick on you, it was no reason for you to chase him halfway up a tree now was it?"

More indignant squeaking followed.

"Yes, I know he shouldn't have dropped an acorn on your head either, and believe me I'm going to have a very stern talk with him. But you have to understand that people do very desperate things when they're scared, and you'd made that squirrel very scared with the way you behaved.

"You know," Fluttershy continued. "None of the other mice are as short tempered as you are. Perhaps you should try and learn a little patience from them."

At that moment, the sounds of the trumpet began to fly across Ponyville, reaching Fluttershy inside her cottage, startling the animals outside who added their own chorus of quacking, hooting, squawking and squeaking to the cacophony.

"Oh dear, I wonder what's going on out there," Fluttershy said. "I hope they have a good reason for frightening all of my friends like this, and after all the fuss that everypony made the last time. I might have to have a word with Twilight about this."

The door to the cottage was flung open, colliding with the far wall with a bang as Angel hopped through the now-opened doorway, his expression frantic and his ears and hands alike flapping wildly.

"Angel!" Fluttershy's eyes widened at the obvious panic of her little friend. "What's wrong?"

Angel hopped up and down furiously, pantomiming with his hands. He grabbed a conveniently placed knife off the dinner table and began to wave it in front of him, duelling furiously with the empty air like a swashbuckling lead.

"Somepony is fencing?" Fluttershy guessed.

Angel shook his head furiously, shouldering the knife and miming marching up and down.

"Soldiers? Ooh, Twilight's Guards," Fluttershy said.

Angel nodded, then shook his head.

"Soldiers, who aren't Twilight's guardsponies?" Fluttershy proffered.

Angel nodded enthusiastically.

"Soldiers in Ponyville," Fluttershy murmured, fluttering to the window of her cosy cottage. "But who could they be? And what do they want?"

Angel had stopped pantomiming. He had no more answers than she did.

* * *

The Cutie Mark Crusaders sat in their clubhouse, clustered around the ideas spot target drawn on the floor, heads sunk deep in thought. The balls of crumpled up paper around them were testament at once to the many ideas they had thrown out that afternoon and to the fact that none of them had been particularly good.

"What if we were right in what we said to Applejack, and we really do need to get out of this town in order to find out who we're meant to be," Scootaloo moaned, her head in her hooves.

"Aw, come on Scootaloo, Ponyville ain't so bad," Apple Bloom said. "It's home, and it's where family is. You know we'd miss it if we just ran away without tellin' nopony."

"You can say that because you have a family," Scootaloo replied.

"It's not about family, it's about belonging," Sweetie Belle said. "Lancer had a family and he wasn't happy. But we've got more than that, don't we? What about us, Scootaloo, aren't we like your family?" Sweetie Belle turned on Scootaloo the puppy eyes that had brought Rarity to her knees, and the young filly was no more immune to them.

"Yeah, you are, I'm sorry I said anything," Scootaloo said, scratching the back of her neck sheepishly. "You guys, and Rainbow Dash and everypony, there is a lot to like about this place and I'd miss all of you. I just wish I could stay here and have a cutie mark!"

"Well we all want that," Apple Bloom said. "But what haven't we tried yet?"

The trumpet began to sound, its notes darting urgently between the trees of Sweet Apple Acres to assail their ears.

"We haven't tried getting our cutie marks as musicians?" Sweetie Belle said. "We could enrol in school band!"

"School doesn't have a band," Scootaloo said.

"We could start a school band!" Sweetie Belle carried on without pausing. "I'm sure Pinkie Pie would lend us the instruments."

The trio heard hooves furiously pounding towards them, across the ground and up the wooden ramp towards the clubhouse.

"Apple Bloom? Girls? Are y'all in there?"

"We're right here Applejack," Apple Bloom called back. "What's the matter sis, you sound kinda worried."

Applejack pushed open the door, the dust on her heels drifting inside to settle on the doormat. She took a deep breath, "Y'all need to find someplace to hide, now."

"Hide? But why?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Because there's gonna be trouble around here soon and I don't want to see y'all caught up in it," Applejack said shortly. "So all three of you gotta run, right now, you here. Don't go near the forest, but get away from town, find somewhere to hide, and stay there. Hide, hide in Ghastly Gorge. The mouth of it's pretty safe, but nopony will look there for you. Hide there and don't come out until I tell you too. If I don't come get you then one of mah friends will, Rarity or Rainbow Dash if they can, maybe somepony else. But don't do anything anypony says who you don't trust."

"Why do we have to hide?" Scootaloo asked. "Why should we hide from everypony? What's going on?"

"I don't rightly know and if I did I wouldn't have time to explain it to y'all. You got to trust me on this, okay," Applejack snapped.

"You're scaring me, sis."

Applejack bent her legs slightly, so that her eyes were level with those of her little sister, "I promise Apple Bloom there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. I'll come get you tonight and we'll have a big ol' laugh about this over dinner. I'd just rather be safe than sorry is all. Okay?"

Apple Bloom looked into her big sister's guileless green eyes, "Okay."

Applejack pulled Apple Bloom into a tight, warm hug, nuzzling her with her nose, "Ah love you. Now be careful and look out for one another y'all. Now go!"

Applejack practically chivvied them out of the Clubhouse, and stood at the top of the ramp watching them as they ran southwards, towards the gorge and away from Ponyville, the sound of the trumpet nipping at their heels like some tireless predator, driving them ever further away from home.

* * *

The zebras of Imperial Grevyia emerged from the forest like the shadows lengthening as the sun went down. A mist preceded them, rolling forward out of the tree line and down towards Ponyville with all of the slow, grinding inevitability of the smooze that had destroyed so many small towns back home in Chevalia.

The zebras advanced just behind the leading edge of the mist, like ghosts stalking out of the lands of death and dreams. Their white seemed paler than normal, their black darker than shadow, their spear tips eerie and insubstantial in the fog. Only their armour, burnished bright, seemed at all solid, as though it was the anchor that bound their angry spirits to the world.

"Halt!" Virtuous Fury shouted, and the zebra forces ceased their marching with much slamming of hooves upon the ground. They watched him silently, motionlessly, without expression upon faces painted in the warpaint of their houses: the blue and red of House Makkai, the green and gold of House Mesaesuli, the sheer sea blue of House Masylii. The banners hung limply above the heads of the assault force, only a trifling breeze to move them.

Horns were blowing in the town of Ponyville beneath them, an alarm to summon the defenders of the town to arms and the people to fight or flee as they chose. Virtue wondered how many of them would choose to fight. They had not seemed a warlike people, to his eyes.

_If they choose to run I wish them luck, for if they choose to fight they will be crushed._

The zebras were formed in three ranks, their frontage just a hundred wide but Virtue felt that was more than enough to batter their way down Mane Street. It was more important to have a little depth in the line to add weight to the charge.

These were not Chevalian knights, nor the cataphracts that formed the elite of the Grevyian army. These were armoured zebras of the line, the lesser retainers of the noble houses. They wore breastplates to protect their chests, breastplates that covered more of the chest than the armour worn by their Equestrian counterparts, and each zebra wore a half-helm that protected the top of his head, but their protection was by no means comprehensive, with nothing to protect the back, legs or rear torso. Some of the soldiers, the captains and their favourites, wore half-barding, armour like glittering fishscales that covered the head and neck like a balaclava, descending down over the chest and forelegs like a skirt, but even that left them vulnerable to attack from behind.

_We shall have to bowl them over with our charge, and trust to Shrike's mantids to protect us from air attack._

Virtue himself had decided not to wear his armour, for the same reason he did not carry his lance or wear his horn around his neck: they were the tools he used to keep his kingdom and his people save, and did not wish to tarnish them in such a cause. For much the same reason he had not styled his silver-white mane into a the braids of knighthood, for he half did not feel a knight in this place, in this army. He would let his mane hang loose, like the barbarian he had been reduced to.

Emerald Ray stalked through the mists towards him, his crystal armour glittering in the mist. Beneath his crystal helm the pony's green eyes gleamed with anticipation, and his expression was hungry.

"Are you excited?" he growled, licking his lips.

"I am not a child to get excited at my first battle," Virtue replied stiffly.

"Every battle is exciting, you never know who you'll face next. Or how much fun you'll have watching their courage turn to fear," Emerald Ray laughed softly.

Virtue was spared from having to reply by a shifting in the ranks of zebras behind them as the warriors made way for Sunset Shimmer.

Much as he might not want to admit it, his mistress looked radiant upon the field of battle. She glowed with anticipation, shining in the mists which she had conjured as though she alone could light their way to home and glory. Her robes, which had always shimmered in many different colours, seemed brighter than usual. There was something almost regal in her calm composure, the air of confidence which trailed in her wake, the glance of cold command that was in her eyes. Behind her, her pack of demons gathered, silenced by the solemnity of the occasion or more likely by the will of Sunset Shimmer herself.

They were a motley crew, all shapes and sizes, some lizard-like, some serpentine, some still resembling the ponies they had once been. Their skin was rough, their wings leathery, their fangs sharp and their eyes cruel. The evil of worlds brought together to taint new pastures with their touch. Monsters of the sort to send little colts and fillies running to bed.

_When you were...what you were before, did your mothers' send you to bed with cautionary tales of hungry monsters? Should I pity you more than I fear you?_

_No, for whatever you were before you would gobble up colts and fillies and never give it a second's thought if Mistress Sunset were to command it._ Virtue was very glad that there were three ranks of zebras between him and them. Just looking at the creatures made his hooves itch.

Emerald Ray bowed, "Mistress Sunset."

Virtue bowed his head, but kept his legs firm, "Mistress Sunset."

Sunset acknowledged them with the merest nod, striding forward to look over Ponyville, which even now was stirring furiously in response to their emergence.

"A good day for it, do you think?" she asked.

"Any day is good for the work we do," Emerald Ray said.

Virtue frowned, "Do you mean to lead out the assault, mistress?"

Sunset laughed, "What, and risk all my power and knowledge being for nought when I get impaled on some farmer's rake or ten-bit spear? What do you think I keep you two around for? Not for your scintillating conversation certainly. You'll lead the attack. I shall watch from here, guarded by my demons. If you have need of them, I'll send them in to help you."

Virtue nodded, that was only proper for somepony in Mistress Sunset's position. He asked, "Will you make a speech, mistress?"

Sunset Shimmer blinked, "A speech?"

"It is traditional for the commander to make a speech before great or auspicious battles, mistress," Virtue said. "And the opening battle of the campaign is certainly auspicious."

Sunset snorted, "I have better things to do than waste my breath. Waste yours if you like. But make it quick."

Virtue nodded, "Thank you, mistress." As he made to turn and face the zebras he caught Emerald Ray looking at him strangely, "What?"

"A speech? Really?"

"None of your princesses or captains ever made a speech before battle?"

"None that I cared to listen to," Emerald Ray drawled.

Virtue shook his head at the lack of poetry in their souls as he wheeled about to face the waiting zebras, who stood statue still and grim faced awaiting the order that would turn them loose upon their enemies.

Virtue stared at them for a moment, his gaze flickering across faces proud and fierce, nervous and courageous, indifferent, excited. Trying to remember the kind of speeches Spotless Honour had given, recalling the speech given by Princess Grace on the eve of Sunset's assault upon the Shining City, he took a deep breath and raised his voice for all to hear him.

"Soldiers of the Empire," he called out. "Warriors of Most Ancient Grevyia. We are a long way from home, you and I. Together we have walked a winding road, from the deserts of your home, across oceans, over continents and now here we stand, in the midst of the land of our foes, on the edge of battle.

"A long road, and arduous. No doubt there are those of you would rather not have walked it. I do not doubt that there are those you have no desire to fight these ponies, and only loyalty to the houses which you serve has brought you here. No doubt there are those of you who dream of home: wives, sweethearts, children. I do not doubt it because I feel the same. I did not come to this land by any choice of mine, and there are comrades dear who wait for my return and whose absence is a weight upon my heart with every breath I draw. I would like nothing better than to see them again, to put this war behind me.

"But make no mistake, warriors of Grevyia, the way is well and truly shut. We have walked the path and now the darkness has swallowed up the road behind us. If we turn back, only ruin awaits us. If we hesitate, if we so much as glance behind us and allow our steps to falter we are lost. There are no magical paths to our own lands here with us, there are no ships here to take us home. There is only battle and victory and the promise that when we have conquered all before us and made a peace then, then we may all go home.

"So hold that promise in your hearts as you go forth to carve a way to those you care for, because home, soldiers! The way home lies through Ponyville! Will you forge a path with me?"

The zebras began to pound their hooves upon the ground, slamming their spear-butts into the earth, chanting in their native language a song of war.

"Forward!" Virtue yelled, gesturing down towards Ponyville. "Forward, to home and victory."

The ground shook beneath their tread as the warriors of Imperial Grevyia began to advance.

* * *

"Twilight!" Rainbow Dash pushed the door to the library open so hard the hinges squealed in protest, flying in through the doorway and looking wildly all around as though Twilight Sparkle could be found hiding in one of the crevices between the bookshelves. "Twilight, where are you?"

Spike came running down the stairs, tripping on the way down and bouncing head first down the last few steps, "Rainbow Dash, what's going on? It sounds pretty hectic out there."

"What's going on? What's going on is that a bunch of zebras just showed up outside of Ponyville and they're going to attack us, that's what's going on," Rainbow Dash said. "Where's Twilight?"

"I don't know," Spike said. "She went out before lunch and she hasn't come back yet."

"At a time like this? Come on!" Rainbow Dash flapped back out of the library, Spike running to keep up with her. She spied a stallion she recognized hovering just above the ground as he headed to join the guards, "Hey, Red, you seen Twilight?"

Red Wyne's face became a picture of confusion, "No. You don't know where she is?"

Rainbow Dash bit back the reply that if she knew where Twilight was she wouldn't have needed to ask would she. She settled for saying, "I don't know if anypony does."

"At a time like this?"

"That's what I said!"

"You don't think this could have anything to do with Breaking Dawn do you?" Spike asked. "She worked with the zebras before."

"Yet, and betrayed them too, unless zebras have shorter memories than I thought," Rainbow Dash replied. "Besides, this is Twilight we're talking about. There's no way some punk like Breaking Dawn could take her in a straight fight." _Could she? _"And if Twilight did know where Breaking Dawn was, why would she go out to meet her without telling anypony."

"Well she wouldn't just hide while Ponyville was in danger either," Spike moaned. "What are we going to do?"

"You're going to get back in the library and shut the door till somepony tells you to come out," Rainbow Dash said. "No offense, Spike, but you're not exactly a fighting dragon."

"What are you gonna do?"

"With or without Twilight, this is still our home and no zebra is going to get their hooves on it without a fight," Rainbow Dash declared. "If they want to do it the hard way, then we'll do it the hard way."

"Here they come!" Lancer bellowed from the outskirts of town, where his guardsponies formed a thin line between Ponyville and the now-moving zebras.

"I guess that's my cue," Rainbow Dash said.

"Are you sure it'll be okay? Are you sure you want don't want me out there?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, I don't want you out there, Twilight would hate it if you got hurt," Rainbow Dash said. "As to the other thing: don't worry about it, I said it'll be okay and it'll be okay. Believe in the me who believes in me, Spike."

Spike frowned, "Are you sure that's how it goes?"

"It's how my version goes," Rainbow Dash said. She began to fly towards the enemy at a steady pace, Red Wyne keeping pace with her.

"You up for this, Red?" Rainbow Dash asked, her gaze turning on the deep crimson pegasus, dark as the drink for which he was named.

"Of course," Red smiled with a mixture of trepidation and excitement, his grip on the silver staff slung over his shoulder tightening. "I mean, I've already woken up to see Pinkie Pie's face an inch away from mine, what could be scarier than that? Not zebras, that's for sure."

Rainbow Dash chuckled, "You got that right."

Rainbow Dash arrived at the edge of town, where many other ponies had already joined the guards watching the zebras bear down upon them. They advanced at a steady pace, increasing gradually, preceded by the mist that ran before them even though there was no fog scheduled for at least another month.

_So just who is causing it then?_

"Rainbow Dash, thank goodness you've arrived," Rarity said. "Where's Twilight?"

Rainbow Dash frowned, and did not respond. She looked out across the assembled gathering, across the faces of Captain Lancer and his guards as they maintained their stoic fronts, the trepidation of Lyra and Bon Bon, the concern in Derpy's wall eyes, the undisguised nervousness of Fluttershy.

"Why would Princess Twilight abandon us?" the mayor asked.

"Twilight has not abandoned us," Rainbow Dash snapped. "I don't know where she is or why she's there but I know she'll have a perfectly good explanation and we'll all here about it when she gets back. But until then everypony listen up because I've got something to say."

She flew a dozen feet up into the air, her back to the advancing zebras, "This town is where we live. It's our home, and we all like it here. Because this is the best town and the best home in all of Equestria!  
"We aren't all unicorns. None of us have magic as our special talent. We aren't none of us princesses, or alicorns or Princess Celestia's favourites. But that's fine, because we are who we are and who we are is pretty sweet awesome if you ask me. We've got Applejack, who can kick an apple tree clean in one blow."

"Aw shucks, sugarcube."

"Rarity, who once reduced a whole tribe of diamond dogs to cowering wrecks without raising a hoof. Or how about Fluttershy, who saved the whole town from a dragon once? Or how about the rest of you? Snowflake, I once saw you push a cloud the size of a mountain away from town and over the forest by yourself."

"YEAH!"

"Thunderlane, even when you were sick you came out for tornado training every day until it put you in the hospital. Big Macintosh once dragged a hole house to get to true love. Derpy is always there for anypony when they need help. This town is totally full of amazing ponies, and if these jerks think that they can take our home away from us I say we show 'em that they've got another thing coming. Who's with me?"

"Yeah!

"Yeah!

"YEAH!"

Lancer nodded, "Rainbow Dash, would you like to lead up the pegasi?"

"Right," Rainbow Dash nodded. "We'll head up and then hit 'em from above."

There was a mass insectoid buzzing sound as fifty giant mantises rose up from out of the Everfree Forest and began to fly towards ponyville.

"Oh, gimme a break," Rainbow Dash groaned. "Okay! First we'll squash the bugs, then we'll hit 'em from above. Got it? Okay, everypony follow me."

* * *

The zebra forces broke into a canter, the dust kicked up by their furiously pounding hooves as thick as the mist that went before them. A mist that, Virtue noticed, began to break up as it reached the opposing ponies.

_I suppose we will have no need of cover at that point._

A great host of pegasi had risen up into the air, outnumbering Shrike's mantids by a considerable margin and the draghkar were not warriors for a fight such as this.

_I hope she can keep the sky clear long enough for us to win on the ground or this will be a very short war indeed._

The pegasi sped forwards, led by a blue pony who left a rainbow streak in her wake, and Virtue heard the buzzing of mantis wings over the pounding of hooves as Shrike led her insectoid warriors to meet them.

Ahead of them, the ponies waited, a great many of them had chosen to fight. Enough to make things interesting.

_No reason to delay this any longer,_ Virtue raised his voice, "At the gallop!"

The zebras quickened their pace, their legs moving furiously as they surged forward with a great shout.

"For Grevyia!" Virtue yelled. "For victory!"

_For my sweet Chevalia._

He screamed wordlessly as his charge slammed head-first into the defenders of Ponyville.

The two sides collided with a crunch, and the air filled with cries of anger, cries of pain, cries of alarm as battle consumed the edge of Ponyville.

Virtue ploughed straight into a pony of the Royal Guard, dodging the spear thrust forward to take him, barrelling into his opponent like one of those iron turtles that these ponies ran on rails all across their country. His shoulder ached as he struck the guardspony's breastplate, but Virtue was inured to pain by constant training and gave no voice nor expression to it as he bore his foe back. The guard was hurled to the ground, Virtue astride him. He struggled, but Virtue brought his hoof down like a hammer upon the face of his opponent, once, twice, three times until the guard was groaning and unconscious on the ground. Taking up the fallen pony's spear Virtue bellowed in triumph, gesturing forward even though every zebra who might have followed him was either locked in battle or had advanced past him into the melee.

He pitched in to the continuing fight, defeating two more guards and laying them low upon the ground as he felt the joy of battle begin to rise within him. He still recalled what he had seen of Ponyville at peace, but the feelings of regret that visit had inspired in him were becoming harder and harder to recall as Virtue began to feel the thrill of combat. An armoured pegasus charged for him with a wild war cry, wings spread out even though the pony was running along the ground. Virtue grinned, he had heard that there were some pegasi here whose wings were so sharp that they could cut through dragonscale. He wanted to feel it for himself.

The guard charged, wings positioned so as to cut Virtue's throat. Virtue sidestepped nimbly out of the way, but not before he let the pony's wings score him down the flank, leaving a deep red gash all the way to his hind leg.

Virtue grinned as the pony turned to face him again, "Thank you, sir. I always make sure to collect a scar from every fight. This will do nicely."

The pegasus bellowed in anger, charging for him again. Virtue sprung, cat quick, and struck the guard upon the chin with the butt of his stolen spear. The pegasus reared up, his back arching, before Virtue struck him again in his unprotected stomach.

Virtue laughed, half intoxicated by the fighting raging all around him. "On," he cried wildly. "On, on!"

* * *

Shrike scowled as she finished off her latest challenger ─ a black pegasus with a white mane ─ and sent him plummeting to the ground. Her mantids could not fly so high as pegasi could, so the fighting was taking place at a height where the fall wouldn't kill him, just hurt.

So far she was very far from impressed by what the inheritors of her land had been putting up against her.

_Is this the best that Celestia can offer? Is this what a thousand years of harmony have done for my kind? Did Lady Nightmare fall and my comrades perish so that the pegasus race could be reduced to this?_

The pegasi defending, or trying to defend, Ponyville outnumbered her two to one. Had Shrike been leading the defence they would have swept all before them by now. But these pegasi were soft, more used to handling clouds than trading blows, and her proud mantis warriors were more than making up for the discrepancy with their superior skill.

_After I have avenged Lady Nightmare I shall devote myself to the improvement of my people back to their ancient glories. The Shadowbolt Academy, has a nice ring to it..._

A muscular white pegasus with absurdly small wings charged at her, flapping his tiny wings furiously like a bird trying to fly through a hurricane. Idly, Shrike took him out in a flurry of precise, well timed blows.

_Is there nopony in this town who knows how to fly and fight at the same time?_

The air exploded with a deep booming sound and Shrike's dark blue eyes widened at the sight of a rainboom splitting the sky, the multi-coloured shockwave blasting several of her mantids backwards, spiralling out of control as they fell to earth. The pony responsible, a blue mare with a rainbow coloured mane, turned around, leaving a rainbow coloured trail in her wake.

_Sonic Rainboom? Now this is interesting._ There hadn't been a pony who could produce the rainboom since Dragonsbreath, a hundred years before Shrike's time. Even in her day there had been those who called it a myth, much knowledge had been lost in Discord's tyranny. Shrike settled her flying goggles over her eyes, a grin spreading across her face.

"This fight just got interesting after all."

She sped off in pursuit, knowing that half a dozen mantises would follow her without her having to say a word, if they could keep up. Frankly, at this point it didn't matter if they could or not. Right now, the only two ponies in the world that mattered were Shrike and that rainbow-maned mare, the only two ponies on the battlefield who truly understood the air.

The cyan mare looked backwards, and Shrike thought she caught a frisson of anticipation in her red eyes, a slight twinkle in the cocky grin she threw Shrike. Here was a mare who appreciated a challenge.

_We are well matched._

The rainboom pegasus sped up, the air parting before her as she shot forward. Her rainbow trail burned hot in Shrike's face, forcing her out to one side a little. Shrike grinned. Elementary tactics, Ms Rainboom had just forced Shrike to put a little more distance between her and her prey. Shrike forced her wings onwards: faster, faster, faster. She was going as fast as she ever had, as fast as she could have gone when she training six hours a day, and still she was not gaining.

_She's younger than I am, and I was always so much better at flying than the mantids that it must have made me soft. But youth and speed aren't everything. I'll have you yet. You'll have to slow down soon unless you mean to run away. Aflter all you may be able to keep up that pace on the straight but I'm betting you can't turn at that speed.  
_

The rainboom pegasus made a precision ninety degree turn flat out, her trail looked like a brick wall, indicating the utter absence of a turning circle.

Shrike's jaw dropped, and she gulped in an unhealthy quantity of air at high speed before she got a grip on herself.

_That's not...who is she?_

Shrike turned, in a rather more curved fashion, to continue the pursuit.

"Hey, old timer," the mare yelled. "You tired yet?"

Shrike was too busy gasping for breath to respond.

One of her mantids rose up to try and intercept the mare, who responded by ploughing into the mantis as though it wasn't there. There was a resounding thud, and the dazed mantis fell to the ground while the pegasus carried on uninterrupted.

Shrike pressed herself onwards in spite of the protests of her wings. _I am the captain of the Shadowbolts, Luna's confidante and Lady Nightmare's messenger, legacy and inheritor all rolled into one. I will not be beaten by some sunbeam.  
_

Ms Rainboom turned again, this time coming back towards Shrike before diving down towards the ground.

Shrike grinned, for she understood this game. It was chicken, and she was a past master of it. Nopony could hold their nerve the way she could. She dived down in pursuit, zooming towards the green earth which got closer and closer.

The rainboom pegasus was faster, going as fast as she had at any point in the battle so far. Shrike nearly laughed at the foolishness of youth.

_You need to be fast in order to fool your opponent, but you've gone way past the safety line. You're too close to the ground and there's no way you can pull up in time with how fast you're─_

Three feet from the ground the rainboom pegasus pulled up, executing another perfect ninety degree turn up again. The grass rustled at her passing.

_What the? No way anypony can make a perfect ninety degree turn three feet off the deck going that speed. There's no way! What is this mare?_

Shrike was so stunned by what she'd just witnessed that she forgot she was passing her own safety limit. Desperately she spread her wings wide, pulling upwards, flapping desperately for height.

Too late. Her hind legs scraped along the ground and Shrike cried out as they were wrenched by the sudden stop. She tumbled forwards, hitting the dirt with all the force of sudden rapid deceleration, bouncing head over heels over head again before landing in a tangled heap, the world suddenly seeming a surreally distorted place.

Shrike moaned. There was no part of her that did not ache, her wings most of all. She wouldn't be flying for a while if she knew anything about the pony body. Worse, she wasn't even sure she could walk at the moment, and in the middle of the battle that was not a pleasant state to be in.

Somepony stood over her, half blocking out the sun, and Shrike felt her stomach sink. In her current state she would be in no position to resist if anypony decided to finish her off.

"The great Shrike, captain of the Shadowbolts, beaten," Sunset Shimmer said, every word out of her mouth loaded with contempt. "And not just beaten, soundly trounced. It's pathetic."

Shrike groaned, but said nothing in protest as she attempted to rise to her feet. There was nothing she could say, because Sunset Shimmer was absolutely right. It was pathetic. How had she fallen so low? Was that rainbow pony really so good as to take her out without Shrike even being able to get a hit in?

_What if it wasn't her? What if it's me?_

* * *

Sunset Shimmer stood at the edge of the Everfree Forest, paying very little attention to Shrike's struggles or her injuries as she watched the fighting unfold. _They can't defeat a few villagers? They're useless!_

Her zebras still couldn't completely force their way into Ponyville, being caught up in the fighting on the edge of town, and though they were forcing the Equestrians - strange how she could so easily put aside the fact that she was an Equestrian herself - they could not gain a decisive advantage, while in the air Shrike had been brought down and the mantids initial advantage was being steadily eroded by Rainbow Dash.

_What is the point of searching out the best flier from the past if she can be so utterly humiliated by the best flyer of the present? What do these clowns think they're doing?_ She was half tempted to give Shrike even more injuries to teach her to up her game next time, but there was a slight difference between allowing one of your servants to get incapacitated and doing it yourself, and that was a line she wasn't quite ready to cross. Not to mention there was absolutely no profit in it for her, besides making her feel a little better temporarily.

Her disgust and anxiety communicated itself to her demon servants through the link they shared, and they began to growl and hiss, snarl and paw the ground, flexing claws and flashing jaws in eager anticipation. They were her first and finest, her favourites from the horde, ascended from the draken-kind of Amirantha, the Were of Korin-Tal, the noble horses of Bucephalon. She had uplifted them, perfected them, made them swift and strong and fierce, given their empty lives purpose.

They were her children. The only children she would ever have. And, like all children, it was time to let them stand on their own feet.

Sunset smirked, "Very well, my children. You shall taste the pain of Equestria for the first time. Go!"

_And take care of yourselves._

The demons howled, the bellowing of fifty magnificent creatures striking the skies above. Hiero, her very first and still her strongest, a champion amongst the draken folk before he came to her, stood before her and bowed submissively, With surprising gentleness from a creature the size of a house, covered in scales and with wings like an evil bat, he nuzzled her with his scaly snout.

Sunset closed her eyes for the moment, feeling the warmth of his touch in contrast with the coolness of the air. She whispered, "I know. I know." And embraced him with one leg. "Good luck."

The demons charged, some on foot and some on the wing, surging forwards toward Ponyville, shrieking all the while.

Sunset stood back, and waited for her now inevitable triumph.

* * *

Lancer fended off an attacking demon with his spear, using his shaft to block the monster's jaws as they snapped for him. He stepped back, shifting fluidly into the spear forms he had learnt so long ago when he had turned up at the barracks of the guard a desperate blank flank. Arc of the Moon to Kissing the Adder, to The Boar Rushed Downhill, finishing with Lightning of Three Prongs to drive his spear through past the creature's scales and end it with a howl of pain matched by Lancer's cry of anger. Twisting the spear in the wound, Lancer threw the creature's body back and reclaimed his weapon, looking around to see how his troops fared.

Not well. What ground they had held against the zebras they were losing under the onslaught of this new menace. Their armour was rent by claws, crushed by jaws, while the defenceless ponies of the town were beginning to break and run from these monsters who acted like no known beast and fought with a wildness no pony could match.

"Hold the line!" Lancer shouted, knowing it was a fool's hope that they could do so. "Stand your ground, Twilight Company. Hold!" He might as well have called for them to advance for all the likelihood that they would do it, but the words had to be said. It was his duty to hold for as long as he could, and inflict as much damage upon the enemy as he could.

"Flash Sentry!" he yelled, and the golden pegasus lieutenant wove through the fighting to set down beside him.

"It's been a good fight, but I think we both know how it's going to end," Lancer said. "So I want you to fly to Canterlot, best speed, and advise Princess Celestia to prepare for the defence of Canterlot."

Flash Sentry looked shocked, but it was to the lad's credit that he made no protest. He simply nodded, his eyes wide and watery.

"Tell her highness that we did all we could, and that I send my regrets we were not able to do more," Lancer said. "Now go!"

Flash Sentry saluted, then took off, winging his way towards the far-off spires of the capital as fast as his wings would carry him.

Lancer watched him for a moment, then turned his attention back to the enemy bearing down upon him.

"All right then," Lancer snarled, baring his teeth as he raised his spear. "Who's next?"

"I am, " a gravelly voice replied as a crystal pony, armoured head to toe in the famous armour of the empire's knights, strode out from the midst of the zebra ranks. He was green, what little of him Lancer could see beneath his armour, and his green eyes glistened in anticipation. His armour was nearly comprehensive, glimmer crystal plate covering his chest, legs, neck and head, a lurid green crest atop his helm, and the whole array glimmering with emeralds and rubies red as blood. A lance of war was affixed to his flank, a bardice slung across his back and a short sword upon his flank.

The crystal pony smirked, "I hope you're ready for this captain. You might regret issuing an open invitation."

Lancer readied his spear, "I suppose you were some big noise a thousand years ago, from the way you're acting."

"I was a little, infamous," the crystal knight licked his lips. "Name's Emerald Ray."

"That was a thousand years ago," Lancer said. "Might be you're not as loud as you used to be."

"Only one way to find out, isn't there," Emerald Ray declared, and he charged forward, kicking up dust with his armoured hooves as they hammered upon the ground.

He aimed his lance square for Lancer's chest, a blow that would either knock him off his feet or pierce his armour and his chest both. Lancer let the crystal knight come on and sidestepped stroke, whirling his spear in his hooves. Emerald Ray began to turn, but Lancer brought his spearblade down Emerald's lance. The wooden shaft split with a crack, the lance shattering into fragments and pieces. With a cry, Lancer drove his spear at Emerald's neck. The spearpoint skittered off the ornate crystal armour.

Emerald Ray grinned as the two backed away from one another. He said, "Crystal armour, finest in the world. Accept no substitutes. Sadly I don't think yours is of quite the same calibre."

He gripped his sword tightly in his mouth and hurled himself upon Lancer even before he had finished drawing. Lancer tried to parry with his spear but the crystal pony was fast, insanely fast, and Lancer's spear was only halfway to where it needed to be before Emerald Ray was inside his guard. His first stroke notched the spearshaft on its way up, then scarred Lancer's neck and knocked his gilded helmet clear off his head, where it flew up into the air in a wide arc. Grunting with satisfaction, Emerald pressed Lancer hard, slashing sideways and giving Lancer another cut across the jaw. Grinning despite the sword in his mouth, Emerald went for the throat.

Lancer brought his spear up in time and the blade struck the spearshaft with a resounding thud. The two ponies pressed against one another, matching their strength against the enemy. Lancer gritted his teeth, and pushed back with all of his earth pony strength.

Emerald Ray dropped his sword as he gave ground, Lancer driving forward with his spear, thrusting for the eyes which were unprotected by the crystal helm. Eyes that sparkled with enjoyment as Emerald Ray took the bardiche from off his back and began to use it as both spear and sword at once.

"You know you're not bad at this, captain," Emerald Ray said conversationally as the two ponies battled, their blades and shafts clashing in a series of rhythmic wooden and metallic sounds. "I like that."

"Really? And why's that?" Lancer grunted.

"Because when the battle is hard work, the death at the end is always more fun!" Emerald Ray snarled, going on the offensive. He slashed and thrust wildly with his polearm, and seemed to enjoy himself more and more whenever Lancer matched his moves.

Sadly, Lancer didn't match them often enough to keep from acquiring scars on his legs and neck. He was breathing heavily, more than his opponent was. All his gift with the spear and he still couldn't find an opening in that damned armour.

Lancer was about to counterattack, when he felt a terrible stabbing pain in his thigh. He looked back, to see a zebra sinking his spear into his flank. His leg gave way beneath him and he fell to the ground, Emerald Ray standing over him.

"Well now that's just no fun at all," Emerald Ray said. He kicked Lancer in the face, and the captain knew no more.

* * *

"Now look what you made me do," Emerald Ray growled. "I had to let him live, because killing him by then would have pointless!"

The zebra who had struck the deceitful blow looked fearful and uncertain, "I'm sorry sir, but─"

"Don't interrupt me when I'm having fun!" Emerald Ray roared, taking the zebra's head off with one stroke of his bardiche. Kicking the head away, Emerald Ray snorted and went to find some other pony to terrorise.

* * *

Lyra pulled Bon Bon and Red Wyne into one of Ponyville's side-alleys as the defence began to fall apart around them, "You see that pony up there, on the edge of the forest?"

"Yeah," Bon Bon said. "What about her?"

"I recognise her! That's Sunset Shimmer, she was a school senior when I was a freshmare. She was a real jerk too, I bet she's behind this."

"Because she was a jerk?" Red asked.

"Yeah."

"Um, right," Red murmured.

"I bet if we can take her out we can put a stop to all of this," Lyra went on enthusiastically. "So I'm going to work my way around the fighting and get her while she's still alone."

Bon Bon looked worry, "Honey, I know you were captain of the duelling club at school, but you're talking about real fighting here."

"Somepony has to do something or Ponyville is history!" Lyra cried.

"I'll come too," Red said, hefting the magic staff Luna had given him. "Everypony here has done so much for me. I have to do anything I can. For Twilight, and for everypony else."

"Don't worry," Lyra said, giving Bon Bon a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll be fine."

* * *

Sunset Shimmer grinned broadly as the defence of Ponyville collapsed under the onslaught of her demons. Soon it would be time to make her triumphant entrance into Ponyville.

She was already planning what she would say to the proud and docile masses when a bolt of green magic shot towards her. Fast as though, Sunset conjured a shield which instantly deflected the magic missile like it was nothing.

"You won't get away with this, Sunset Shimmer!"

It took Sunset a moment to recognise the green mare with the white-and-green mane who stood confronting her on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Their paths had intersected only barely at school, and Sunset had paid little attention to the juniors. Accompanying her was a blood red pegasus colt with mismatched eyes, one red and one blue, carrying a long silver staff in his forehooves. [i]_Idiot. Does he really think he can just hit me with a stick and this will be over?[/i]_

Sunset smirked, "Lyra Heartstrings, are you sure you want to do this?"

Lyra nodded tremulously, "I'm not scared of you."

"You should be," Sunset replied flatly. "And whose this? Your colt-friend? And here I thought you went for mares."

"My name's Red Wyne," the pegasus shouted angrily. "What have you done with Twilight Sparkle?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Sunset sniggered. "But all this talk is boring me. Fight, run or surrender, but whatever you do, do it quietly."

Lyra attacked first, firing two more magical bolts which fizzled out on contact with Sunset's shield. But Red had closed the distance between them in the meantime, bringing his staff down with an angry yell.

Sunset shook his head at the stupidity of it.

The silver staff connected with the shield...which shattered into a million pieces upon contact.

_What?_ Sunset Shimmer had to roll away to avoid having her head stoved in, getting dust all over her robes of many colours and nearly swallowing grass while she was at it. She climbed to her feet, to see Red Wyne smiling.

"Impressive. Most impressive."

"You'll find I'm full of surprises," Red Wyne said, leaping at her again, his silver staff whirring dizzying. Sunset Shimmer retreated, heartily regretting committing all of her demons to the battle now as she sensed that letting that staff touch her would be a very bad idea. For her part, Lyra kept up a stream of magical attacks, the deflection of which constantly threatened to distract Sunset from the crucial task of avoiding that dratted staff.

_I refuse to be beaten by an average student and some nopony with a big stick!_ Sunset snarled as her horn glowed blue, a massive jet of fire erupting from it to scorch the ground before her and all the way to the edges of the forest, where it singed and burned the trees nearest to her.

When the smoke and the flames cleared Red Wyne stood tall, his staff dug into the ground before him. His breathing was a little heavy, but other than that he had not been affected.

Sunset grunted, and the aura surrounding her horn intensified as she unleashed a barrage of fireballs, ten, twenty, thirty, forty. Red wielded his staff like a bat, battering away the fireballs, which died out immediately upon contact, as he fought his way towards his enemy. The fireballs were relentless, but the Moon Princess' gift did not fail him as not a single one so much as singed his coat. With a triumphant roar he swung his staff at Sunset Shimmer, who stood still as stone to receive the blow.

She disappeared as soon as the silver staff connected, and his blow did nothing more than knock her colour-shifting robes all over the place, landing in tangled piles upon the burned out grass.

"Flash step?" Red stammered in confusion.

Sunset Shimmer appeared behind him, smiling maliciously, "Close enough." A blue stream of magic erupted from her horn, aiming right for Red's back─

He turned at whipcrack speed and placed his staff square in the path of her magic. It struck the silver rod and the beam shattered into a hundred hundred pieces, none of them striking Red even as the force of them bore him backwards, his heels leaving gouges in the earth like the passing of a plough.

Sunset growled as she poured more and more power into her attack, "I've had just about enough of you!"

Red gritted his teeth, and pushed back upon his silver staff as he resisted all of Sunset's efforts.

"Hey, Sunset! Did you forget all about me?" Lyra crowed, launching a mint green bolt of magic out of her horn straight for Sunset.

Sunset leapt away, but the beam that was holding Red Wyne back collapsed as her concentration on it lapsed and he charged towards her, his staff glinting as it caught the sunlight. Powered by his pegasus wings Red leapt up into the air with the roar of a predatory cat, staff raised to fall upon her head.

"Now you're mine!"

Sunset's eyes widened, _No, it can't end this way. Not so quickly. I'm supposed to become immortal. I was meant to sit the empty throne of heaven._

Red descended upon her.

Hiero bellowed in angry challenge as he hurled himself forwards, wings spread out and flapping furiously. He collided with the crimson pegasus in mid-air, bearing him away in a furious ball of frenetic violence. Hiero's claws were out, his fangs bared, any of his corded muscles nearly the size of the little pegasus all by itself.

Red rolled away, trying to rise to defend himself, levering himself up upon that special staff he bore. His face was grim set with determination, and for a moment he looked just like the hero of some dog-eared adventure pulp: the bold, brave warrior, outmatched but not undaunted, confronting the terrifying monster with nought but grit and valour to aid him.

Then Hiero fell upon him, and he became less the hero and more the mouse being savaged by an angry dog.

"Red!" Lyra shrieked, as the annoying pegasus became lost beneath the scything claws of Sunset's favoured son.

Sunset smiled beatifically. _That's it my child. Defend your mother. I can always rely on you._

"I won't let you do this," Lyra growled, her sword clashing with a similar blade conjured by Sunset Shimmer. "I'm not the freshmare any more. I won't let you push everypony around like you did at school!"

"Is that what you think this is? That I want to bully everypony like I used to? You really think I'm so pathetic that I'd raise an army just so I could relive the glory days, I'm insulted!" Sunset Shimmer said, looking it too. "The truth is, Lyra, I've moved on since then. Though by the sounds of it you've had less luck."

Lyra screamed wordlessly, attacking again and again as Sunset blocked her effortlessly again and again. "Stop toying with me! Take me seriously!"

"If you like," Sunset murmured, and her horn glowed as she hit Lyra with a blast so strong it flipped the green mare up into the air head over heels before she landed on the ground, so weakened she didn't even have the energy to think about trying to stand.

Sunset's horn kept glowing as she pressed down upon Lyra with enough force to press her nose into the ground, "Lyra, Lyra, Lyra. I admire your courage, really. But you should have stuck to licking my hooves and cleaning my room," she held out one hoof for Lyra to kiss it. "Like you did in the old days."

Then Hiero screamed.

It was a cry both of terror and of pain. Sunset's head whipped round so fast her neck hurt, in time to see her strongest demon, her brave strong son, reeling backwards, bleeding from the ruin of one eye. Red Wyne rose up in the air, hovering by the slow beating of his wings, but not the same pegasus who had assailed. Both his eyes were red as fire, fangs protruded over his lower jaw, his coat was covered with a flaming aura.

He struck with incredible speed, faster than Sunset's eyes could follow almost, lashing out at Hiero once, twice, three times. Hiero staggered backwards, howling in pain as the staff punched into him, rending his scales and gouging his flesh. The monster in pegasus form laughed, a cruel, harsh, hoarse sound like the laughter of Tirek himself, and struck a fourth time. Hiero's head whiplashed around with an audible snapping of the neck, and he fell to the ground, dead.

"No," Sunset Shimmer murmured. _No, Hiero, please get up. You can't leave me after all we've been through._

He had been her first disciple, unlike so many others he had come to her willingly, hoping to become stronger to better protect his people. He had found something more rewarding in her service, and had followed her across worlds as she pursued her ambitions. He had survived Tambelon and Acheroth, the wild hunt of Illion and the Dashar. He had survived the assault on Chevalia, where so many of his brothers perished, and had killed the Knight of Honour there. And now for him to die here, in Equestria of all places, the least dangerous world she had ever known. It would have been funny if she hadn't cared about him.

Sunset screamed with wordless rage, and a hurled a fireball the size of a barn directly at Red Wyne. The flames struck him, consumed him, and then dissipated having done absolutely nothing to him.

Sunset Shimmer took a step backwards, "What are you?"

He simply grinned, and swooped on her.

"Mistress Sunset! No!" Shrike tried to rise to her feet and staggered to intercept.

With a derisive snort Red Wyne swatted her aside, clubbing Shrike into the ground with a single blow. She collapsed with a grunt, falling like a puppet with the strings cut.

Red brought his staff down to split Sunset Shimmer's skull in two.

Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes.

She heard a dull thunk, but heard nothing. Slowly, carefully, she opened one eye and saw Virtuous Fury standing between herself and her assailant, Red's staff placed against Virtue's head, yet he had not flinched from the blow by a single inch.

Virtue grinned, a blood thirsty smirk she did not believe he was aware he had.

"Fount of honour," Virtue murmured. "I do declare you're something fascinating."

* * *

Virtue grinned like an overeager young colt as he stared up at the beast before him. The pegasus-like creature looked puzzled, surprised that a blow to the head had not affected Virtue as it was meant too. But ever since Virtue had been a young colt sleeping in his mother's warm embrace, he had trained himself for deeds of valour so that he might withstand situations exactly like this one.

Perhaps not exactly like, he generally preferred to be defending a better class of pony than Sunset Shimmer, but something similar.

"You may strike again, if you like," Virtue said. "Gem always said there was nought in my head but wool and sawdust in any case."

The transformed pegasus declined his generous offer, backing away under his wing power, a soft growl emanating from behind those fanged jaws.

"What are you?" Virtue asked. "Are you some new breed of demon? A monster? Or are you just a very unusual pony? If I give you my name, will you give me yours in return?"

The creature growled at him.

"A monster then," Virtue's smile broadened. "Excellent. I always like fighting monsters."

Virtue leapt forward with a light heart, for in this moment, in this space, he could cast off doubt and dismay and all the trivial details like the fact that he fought in an army not his own for a mistress he did not care for and relish in the pure simplicity of pony versus beast. He was as one of the ancient heroes, Dauntless Valour reborn upon this field, battling evil in all its forms with honour, chivalry and courage undoubted. He only wished that all those who had mocked him for his black coat, his red eyes, his so-called demonic visage might witness him here and now, championing right and light and all the values a knight should aspire to.

The pegasus swung his staff in wide arc, hoping to snap Virtue's neck as he had done for Mistress Sunset's demon, but Virtue ducked beneath the stroke even as he skidded to a halt, twirled on his forelegs graceful as any dancer, and kicked the pegasus in the stomach with his hind legs with all the force of a runaway hay cart. The pegasus went flying backwards, hit the ground, bounced, hit the ground again and then rolled to a stop more than twenty feet away.

"I do hope that that is not the end of it," Virtue murmured.

The pegasus arose from amidst the dust of his landing, baring his fangs in fury and gesturing at Virtue with his staff.

"Oh very good," Virtue chuckled.

The wine-dark pegasus surged forward in a blur of motion and a flash of red. Virtue had only a glint of silver to alert him to the staff whipping towards him. He brought up his hoof to block the blow with a crack. The pegasus struck again, and again, and again. Twice more Virtue blocked the blow, but the third time the staff pierce his guard and slammed into Virtue's jaw.

_He hits harder than the angry mule ever did,_ Virtue thought as he spat blood. Then he started laughing. He had noticed that laughing after the foe had gotten a blow in tended to discomfort them or, when he really got going, scare them into a new pair of trousers. He laughed manically, recklessly, for what was transient pain to the likes of him.

The wine-coloured pegasus tilted his head to one side, and grunted curiously.

"Forgive me," Virtue said, still smiling. "I was a little carried away." Then he fell upon his enemy with the strength of a stampede of maddened bulls.

"Virtue 'gainst fury," Virtue shouted, pummelling the pegasus with forehooves like jackhammers, "shall advance the fight," he beat his enemy into the ground and kept on pounding, "and in the combat there shall put to flight," down and down again went his hooves, as though he were trampling grapes into wine or dancing at the princess' ball, "for the old Roman valour is not dead," his enemy had stopped making any sound of protest now, "nor in Italian hearts extinguished."

He stopped, and looked down at the beaten form of his enemy, lying there at his feet, the monster defeated by the virtuous knight, eyes closed, aura fading...

And then his eyes opened, redder and more terrible than before.

The pegasus-creature laughed as his crimson aura erupted brighter than before and he shot upwards, hurling Virtue backwards with his volcanic power. The silver staff was nought but a glimmering silver trail left through the air in the weapon's wake as he struck Virtue about the face once, twice, three times. He knocked Virtue's legs from out beneath him and stood above him, staff raised, poised to crush Virtue's throat with a final blow.

"Come on then," Virtue snarled. "Finish it if you've got the guts you dark-spawned freak!"

The red beast hissed in anticipation. Then, abruptly, it stopped. It looked around, to the wounded Shrike lying helpless in the grass, then to Mistress Sunset, frozen by fear. And then, perhaps it was Virtue's imagination, but the monster seemed to fixate upon the glowing blue crystal sphere that hung around Sunset Shimmer's neck upon a golden chain. The sphere upon which all of Virtue's hopes for the future hung.

_No._

The bloody hooved monster started towards Mistress Sunset.

With a wordless shout Virtue lunged forward, grabbed the beast's leg in his mouth, and bit down as hard as he could.

The creature roared with pain and anger, striking down at Virtue with his staff, but he might as well have struck a stone for all the good it did him. Virtue held on tighter and more doggedly than any mastiff.

Roaring and bellowing, the wine-dark pegasus brought his silver staff down yet again, but when it missed the weapon drove down into the soil and got stuck, while Virtue wrapped one hoof around it.

"Gotcha," Virtue said, rising up like a kraken from the deep to wrap its tentacles about the unsuspecting ship and drag it to the watery depths. He headbutted his enemy, and judging by the way his head snapped back it hurt a lot more than getting tapped on the head by his staff had done. Virtue struck again. Again and again while the pegasus' grip on his staff weakened until it was in Virtue's hands. It sparked and flickered, magical shocks pulsing through his body, demanding his unworthy hooves let go of it, but Virtue bore the pain because he could not, would not, let his home come to harm.

And so he hammered upon his enemy with his own weapon, yelling incoherently all the while, the only thought in his head that his people would only be safe when his monster was laid low. Once more he beat the red pegasus into the ground, this time until his aura faded completely, until he was nothing more than a broken pegasus lying at Virtue's feet, and he was about to raise the protesting staff to crush his enemy's skull when one final, cleansing burst of magic served better than a hundred bumps upon the head.

He looked so young. He was a blank flank still, as Virtue was. So young, and now so badly wounded at Virtue's hands. His wings were torn, his limbs shattered. Would he ever fly again? Would he even walk? His fangs had gone, his aura departed, leaving only a pegasus terribly wounded, perhaps beyond recall. So young, so vulnerable seeming. He reminded Virtue of his little brother, of his old friend Glory. He had done worse to them than any of their tormentors whom he had so righteously looked down upon.

_Virtue 'gainst fury shall advance the fight._

"No," Virtue murmured. "Not Virtue. It was only Fury after all."

"Well done Virtuous Fury!" Sunset Shimmer crowed. "You showed him didn't you? Little punk. I won't forget this you know."

"I'm sure you'll manage, Mistress," Virtue replied wearily.

"Well don't just stand there you lazy lout," Sunset snapped, forgetting quicker than Virtue had anticipated. "Get back down there and finish them off! They're breaking now, they won't stand."

Virtue sighed, "As you command, Mistress."

* * *

Rainbow Dash circled around Ponyville as the zebras and demons stormed down the street, chasing terrified ponies before them.

She could escape, she knew. There was nopony who could catch her in the air. She could get away, to Canterlot or Cloudsdale, get help, spread the word to anypony who would listen. She knew with her head that sticking around was useless. She could do more good, for Twilight, for everypony, by escaping to fight another day.

But Rainbow Dash had always been better at thinking with her heart than with her head, and Fluttershy and Pinkie were down there, Applejack and Rarity too, not to mention Spike.

Gritting her teeth, she descended into the melee.

* * *

"Fluttershy, run!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she brought three zebras down in a tangled heap, lashing out with every hoof she had in all directions.

Fluttershy whimpered in fear as the zebras responded in kind, laying into Rainbow Dash with powerful, painful blows.

"Run!" Rainbow Dash shouted again, her voice thick with pain as more blows than she could defend herself against fell upon her.

Fluttershy turned and ran, tears welling up in her blue eyes. She ran down the street, turned the corner around the Quills and Sofa shop... and ran very nearly headfirst into Virtuous Fury, who stood all but completely concealed in the shadows, his red eyes gleaming in the darkness like some creature spawned from tartarus.

"Virtuous Fury," Fluttershy whispered. "What are you...you're with them, aren't you?"

Virtue stared at her, his expression implacable.

"Why?" Fluttershy asked. "Did I offend you in some way? Please, whatever I did, don't hurt anypony else because of me."

"You did nothing, ma'am, you were the soul of kindness," Virtue murmured.

"Then why?"

Virtue stared at her. Then, something softened in his red eyes and he stepped aside, "Go."

"What?"

"Go," Virtue repeated. "Run, hide, do as you will ma'am but do it quickly."

"But my friends─"

"I cannot help them," Virtue said. "I can only help you. Now go!"

So Fluttershy ran, past Virtue and away from Ponyville. She cried, she called herself every name of cowardice and disgrace, she hated herself, but still she ran.

* * *

The defences were swept away. Ponyville was overrun by zebras, mantids and monsters. Pinkie Pie fired her party cannon into their ranks again and again until she was dragged to the ground, trussed up and muzzled like a dog to stop her talking. Applejack and Big Macintosh fought back to back 'till they were overrun. Rarity turned at bay at the doors of the library, fighting to keep them away from Spikey-wikey for as long as she could.

Spike could hear the sounds of fighting outside, and scrambled for a quill as he rolled out a sheet of paper in front of him.

"Get away you ruffians!" Rarity shrieked. "Back, back I say."

Spike's hand trembled as he tried to write, unable to block the sounds of hooves striking flesh out of his ears as he scratched across the paper.

_Dear Princess Celestia,_

_Ponyville has fallen. Zebras came out of the Everfree Forest, I don't know how they got there. Twilight is missing. Everypony else has been captured. I don't have long before they come for me too. This might be Breaking Dawn's work, I don't know. _

_I can't keep the Elements of Harmony safe._

_Please help us._

_Spike_

Spike breathed green fire and burned the letter to ashes just as the door was broken down and a mustard yelled unicorn with a fiery red and yellow mane strode into the library as though she owned it. Outside, Spike could just see Rarity being held captive by some kind of vicious monster, her beautiful white coat stained with scrapes and cutes and bruises.

"Who are you?" Spike demanded, trying to seem braver than he felt as he desperately fought to stop his knees from knocking. "Y-you'd better run you know. Princess Celestia knows you're here."

The unicorn smiled, "Oh I'll be seeing the Princess soon enough, don't you worry. And you, my little dragon, will be coming to see her with me. Chain him up!"

As they dragged Spike away, Sunset Shimmer made her way to the glass case containing the Elements of Harmony, or at least the outward reflections of their power. They truly resided in the hearts of their bearers, although few ponies really understood that or how it worked. She lifted up the lid on the case, and picked up the Element of Magic, turning it over and over in her hooves as she admired the craftsmanship of the golden crown, the beauty of the purple jewel in the centre. For a moment, she almost heard it whispering to her.

Sunset smirked, "A pretty bauble." She threw it away, hearing it clatter against the library, "But useless to me, ultimately. I have power enough to make it seem as worthless as zebra potions."

* * *

Most of the population of Ponyville had been rounded up and herded into the town hall, their masses heaving in the tightly packed space. The bearers of the elements, however, had been taken to Carousel boutique, all chained up and under guard. Pinkie Pie was still muzzled as Sunset Shimmer made her grand entrance.

"Elements of Harmony, what a pleasure to finally meet you," Sunset declared. She looked over the four ponies in front of her, and frowned, "Where is the last one?"

Virtue looked blankly ahead, "Last one, Mistress?"

Sunset rolled her eyes, "There are six Elements of Harmony, there should be five ponies here. Where is Fluttershy?"

"I shouldn't tell you if I knew, darling," Rarity drawled. "In fact I doubt I'd tell you if you asked me where the restroom was."

Sunset Shimmer seethed inwardly, though she maintained her outward composure.

"Find her," she hissed at Virtue, who bowed as he made his way out.

Rainbow Dash sniggered.

Sunset scowled, "All right listen up all of you. This can go either one of two ways. I can be nice, or I can be cruel. If you want me to be nice, you'll do as I say. I have no quarrel with you. I can even help you, if you'll let me. I'll make all your dreams come true if you like: captain of the Wonderbolts, the most famous dressmaker in Canterlot...whatever it is you earth ponies want out of life. All you have to do is bow to me, swear your loyalty, and follow in my wake so that everypony can see that the heroes of Equestria follow me now. Doesn't that sound like a bargain to you?"

For a moment there was silence in the boutique. Then Applejack stood up, still wearing her dusty, crumpled hat and looked Sunset right in the eye.

"Them's a lot of pretty words, for sure. And that does sound like a mighty fine offer. But, now maybe I'm just being a stubborn show-me pony here, but all the same, I reckon if you wanted to do us all a great big kindness you wouldn't have waited until you'd had yer zebras and such come in hitting everypony in reach to come and talk to us. Still, I'll make you an offer of my own: you let everypony go and make amends for what you've done and we'll speak up for some leniency for you when Twilight Sparkle gets through with you."

Sunset laughed, "Is that what you're hoping for? You think Twilight Sparkle is going to save you? You idiots, I killed Twilight Sparkle before the attack here even began. She died trying to run away, abandoning you to save her own skin."

"Oh, yeah right, like we'd ever believe that," Rainbow Dash spat. "There's no way Twilight would abandon her friends, and there's no way a two-bit thug like you could take her out."

"Then where is she?" Sunset demanded.

Rainbow Dash's mouth opened, but no words came out. Eventually she just snarled wordlessly.

Sunset chuckled, "I take it then that you don't want to accept my generous offer?"

"Not in a million years," Applejack said.

"I should think not," Rarity added.

Pinkie Pie shook her head furiously.

"Very well then, if you don't want me to be nice I shall be cruel. As zebra kings of old would force their vassal lords to run along side their chariot, so I shall have you dragged behind me as a symbol of my victory. I shall stake you out before the walls of Canterlot that all may see you and despair of hope and salvation. I shall have your manes shaved bald and your tails cut off and pluck your wings to make a new cloak for myself. And then I shall set you to scrubbing my floors when I am enthroned in the palace. All this I shall do, and you will wish that you had been less cocky in your answers to me. But now, I must leave you and see if any of your fellow ponies will show more sense than you did."

Sunset Shimmer left them in the boutique, and strode across Ponyville to the town hall. Everypony was silent as she walked in, all eyes on her.

"My name is Sunset Shimmer," Sunset said loudly. "I can be a fair mare, if I am not pushed. Push me, and you will not like it.

"This town is now under my control. In time, I will give it up to one of my zebra allies, to be the fief of the one of the High Bloods of Most August and Ancient Grevyia. All Equestria will be similarly gifted up, save only Canterlot which I will keep for myself.

"Make no mistake, fillies and gentlecolts, the times of milk and honey are over. You have spent your days in idle play but that is done. From now on you will eat stale bread instead of cake, instead of dancing you will toil until you drop by the light of moon and sun, and if you sing it will be only slave chants as you work in the fields for your zebra masters. But there is another way.

"Your princesses have all abandoned you to your fate. But as your new Queen I shall be looking for brave, strong ponies to serve in my army. Anypony who wishes to swear themselves to my service, to follow me and fight my battles, will be welcome in my camp. Any who so enlist shall have honour, status, wealth and glory beyond measure or imagination. If enough come forward I may not even have to take any hostages from amongst the townsponies when I march on Canterlot.

"I will be a good queen, if you give me a chance: just, generous to my friends, terrible to my enemies, wise, prudent. Who will kneel before me, and be my friend?"

There was silence from those cowed, defeated ponies, until a single voice said, "No."

Red Wyne pushed his way to the front of the crowd. He was covered in bruises and bandages, his wings bound to his sides and all four legs set in plaster. He could not walk, Lyra and Derpy had to help carrying him to the front of the crowd like an old mare using her children as walking sticks. His coat was singed, his mane half burnt away, but his eyes blazed with unbowed pride as he raised his voice, "Never! We won't ever bow to you, like we wouldn't bow to the changelings, or to Discord before that! You can beat us down, but we'll get up again, and if we don't then somepony will, and somepony else after that so long as there are free ponies left. We won't ever turn our backs on the princesses. Long live Twilight! Long live Luna!"

Sunset's face twisted into a wicked leer as she advanced upon him. Lyra and Derpy shrank from her as she approached, though they did not abandon Red as Sunset stared at him, nose to nose.

"The demon you killed was named Hiero," Sunset whispered.

Red's eyes became confused, "I don't know what you─"

"Don't give me that," Sunset snarled. "He was mine, and you killed him. Unfortunately for you, I liked him."

Magic erupted from her horn, blasting the injured pegasus backwards. Virtue flinched from the sight, as did the ponies of Ponyville. Only Emerald Ray could look upon what she did. Only he did not try to stopper up his ears until Red stopped screaming.

"Does anypony else have anything brave they want to get off their chest?" Sunset demanded as Red lay on the floor, a slight twitch the only sign he was not dead.

There was a stunned silence for a moment before Big Mac asked, "Where's mah sister, and her friends?"

"Being kept safe," Sunset Shimmer replied tersely. "Just like I will keep safe all the hostages I take with me when I march on Canterlot. In the meantime, I suggest you all prepare yourselves for the lives of slavery that you have chosen, for I give no second chances." She left them, and set a shield around the town as her old friend Trixie had to stop anypony entering or leaving. Then she sent a message to Firethorn and Needlepoint to bring up the rest of her army so that they could assault Canterlot.

* * *

Ponyville Hospital was mostly empty of patients. The zebra warriors had herded everypony strong enough to walk out to join the rest of the prisoners in the Town Hall, with only the most sick or badly injured ponies remaining under the care of the doctors and nurses.

Shrike lay in one of the hospital beds upon her belly, her blue eyes downcast as Nurse Redheart bandaged up the injuries she had taken from her fall. She winced as the bandages around her wing were pulled tight.

"I hope you're not doing that on purpose," Virtue growled as he sat at Shrike's bedside.

The nurse gazed at him with proud imperiousness, "You really think I would do something like that?"

"Ponies can be petty in defeat, I would not put it past you," Virtue replied.

"Leave it," Shrike muttered, her tone glum. "Let her get on with her work."

"These ponies are as like to poison you as heal your ills."

"Perhaps you'd like to take over," Nurse Redheart suggested acidly.

"Perhaps I will just kill you if any harm comes to her beneath this roof," Virtue shot back.

"I told you to leave it," Shrike said. "If she poisons me or sets my bones it doesn't really matter either way."

Virtue's face fell a little, "What's the matter?"

Shrike looked at him, "Seriously?"

"You know what I mean."

"I got my flank kicked, that's what's the matter. I used to be the Captain of the Shadowbolts. I was the best flier in Equestria. I'm the war leader of the mantids, and I got beaten like dusty curtains! What's the matter with me? Did I get old when I wasn't looking? Did I get soft, because I was a better flier than any of the mantids? Did I stop pushing myself and let my skills go to seed?"

"I doubt it," Virtue replied. "You seem like a pretty good flier to me."

"Then what happened?"

"You didn't change," Virtue said. "The world did. It is not the Equestria you were top dog in any more. Things are different. They have their own heroes in this world now."

"Oh thanks, that makes me feel much better," Shrike said.

"It doesn't matter if you are or are not the invincible elite, not really," Virtue said. "No matter how skilled you are, how strong, how brave, how tough, the day will always come when you meet somepony who is better than you are. You have met a pegasus who can outfly out. One day I will meet the knight who can outfight me. But to be outmatched and overthrown by a worthy opinion does not diminish your skill or your character. The only thing that can demean you in defeat is your reaction to it. If you get back on your feet and keep fighting for what you believe, keep striving for victory until you conquer or die, then the fact that you were not undefeated at the end is nothing to be ashamed of. Or you can pull the bedsheet over your head and say that you are not coming out to play any more because the mean girl stole your ball. The choice is yours."

Shrike snorted, "You sure know how to cheer a girl up when she's in the dumps, you know that?"

"I have been told I have a talent for it," Virtue said, looking away. "You have much to be proud of, ma'am. Alone, far from home, out of time, you have gained the loyalty of a whole people, raised an army out of them, and are poised to avenge all your fallen comrades. Many great ponies would be proud of a record have so successful. There are many who love you and rely upon your leadership. Do not let sudden doubt and a check to easy success dismay you overmuch."

Shrike twisted a little to look at him, "Why do you talk like that? Even in my day ponies didn't talk that way?"

Virtue shrugged, "I enjoy it."

Shrike snorted, "Well, once I parsed your language...you might have a point. I'll think about it." She yawned, "But I'm tired, so could you leave me alone so that the nurse can poison me in peace?"

Virtue nodded, "Of course. Good night ma'am."

"Ma'am? Now that makes me feel old."

Virtue left the private room, closing the door gently behind him. He found Mistress Sunset waiting out in the darkened hospital corridor, her blue eyes gleaming in the darkness.

"How is she?" Sunset asked.

"She will be fine, I think, Mistress," Virtue replied.

"Good," Sunset nodded. "Even if she was a little disappointing today, I'd rather have her in the skies for me than not. Especially now that Rainbow Dash is safely in my power."

"As you say, Mistress," Virtue replied.

Sunset paused for a moment, looking unexpectedly hesitant, "Thank you. You probably saved my life."

"Any of your demons would have done the same, and come to your aid, even as Hiero did," Virtue said.

"But you aren't one of my demons, are you?"

"Am I not, Mistress?" Virtue smiled. "Am I not a monster you have taken out of his world and bound to you by sorcery? Am I not your creature even as they are?"

Sunset smirked, "You talk more than they do, that's for sure. I want you to take a patrol of a dozen zebras out and look for Fluttershy, and any other pony who might have escaped. The rest of the force will remain here and await the arrival of our reinforcements."

Virtue bowed his head, "As you command, mistress."

And so Sunset Shimmer, conqueror of Ponyville, and her triumphant forces sat back amidst the spoils of their victory to await the arrival of their reinforcements.

Just as, with cold night closing in around them, the Cutie Mark Crusaders huddled together on the edge of the Ghastly Gorge and waited for Applejack or somepony to come tell them it was safe.


	8. You Can't Go Home Again

Chapter 8

You Can't Go Home Again

In the cold, dark of the night, the Cutie Mark Crusaders shivered. Apple Bloom's stomach rumbled violently as the bow on her head began to sag. Sweetie Belle was curled up on the ground, hugging herself, her face tinged blue with cold and her mane blown askew by the wind. Scootaloo's eyelids felt so heavy. They kept dropping down to cover her eyes, only for her to wake again with a start.

They had been waiting all day and all of the night so far for somepony to come: Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, anypony. They had gone where they were told too, the sound of the trumpets following them until they were too far away to hear it, and they had waited to be told it was okay to come home. None of them knew why they had suddenly had to run away from home, but that hadn't been such a problem at first. Applejack had said it was important, and Applejack wouldn't lie about something like that.

But at first the three of them hadn't been too worried. The crisis would blow over like they always did, and somepony would come and tell them what had happened and they could all laugh about it on the way home. And so while they waited the three fillies had played, tried to think of ways to get their cutie marks, and speculated on what new wackiness had engulfed Ponyville this time.

But then the day had gotten later and later, with no sign of anypony. The sun had set, the moon had risen, and nopony had come. Now Scootaloo didn't know how late it was, except that it was past her bedtime, Apple Bloom's suppertime and Sweetie Belle really needed a fire, or failing that a blanket.

Apple Bloom's stomach growled again. Scootaloo's murmured in sympathy, making Scootaloo abruptly conscious of how deep the yawning pit of emptiness within her felt.

"Okay girls," Scootaloo declared. "I think we ought to just go home."

"What? No way," Apple Bloom said. "You heard what Applejack said. We're to stay put until she or somepony she sends comes and gets us."

"Then where is she?" Scootaloo demanded. "Why isn't she here?"

"Maybe because it ain't safe to come home yet."

"It isn't safe for us to be out here," Scootaloo said. "I'm tired, you're hungry and Sweetie Belle is freezing. We can't sit out here all night, and all the next day and the night after that just waiting like this. Maybe Applejack hasn't come out here because she expected us to have the common sense to come home on our own once it got late."

Apple Bloom frowned, "I'm not sure Applejack would come up with any plan that gave us credit for common sense."

"Look, Apple Bloom, there is nothing that could possibly have happened that would be so awful that we would have to stay out here starving and freezing rather than go home," Scootaloo said.

"Then why hasn't Applejack come? Or any other pony?"

"Because...she's busy," Scootaloo said. "They're all busy! I dunno, you can ask her yourself when we get back, but we can't stay out here!"

"Well we gotta," Apple Bloom snapped. "That's what Applejack told us to do and that's what we're gonna do!"

"You can't decide that for all of us, you're not your big sister and you're certainly not mine," Scootaloo yelled right back at her. "I'm tired, I'm cold, I'm hungry and I want to go home!"

"You don't think I want that to? Don't you think I'd rather be back at Sweet Apple Acres right now, chowing down on apple fritters till I bulge? But if Applejack said it ain't safe then that means it ain't safe!"

Scootaloo scowled, "We'll put it to the vote. I vote to go."

"And Ah vote to stay put," Apple Bloom said mulishly.

"What do you say Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo asked. She looked down at the last member of their troupe, and saw her about to doze. "Sweetie Belle! Come on Sweetie Belle, you gotta stay awake okay. Now come on, do you want to go home or keep waiting here."

Sweetie Belle looked miserable and wretched as she climbed slowly to her feet her legs shaking and her body trembling like a leaf in the wind, "I'd like to go home, if that's okay with you guys."

Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom, "That's two votes to one."

Apple Bloom bowed her head a little, "Okay. Let's go."

"Don't worry about it Apple Bloom," Scootaloo said loudly. "Once we get back to Ponyville, you'll see everything will be fine."

Apple Bloom sighed, "Lead the way."

Scootaloo took the lead as they headed for Ponyville, seeming to know her way in the dark better than Apple Bloom did. Sweetie Belle trailed behind her, and Apple Bloom brought up the rear: neither she nor Scootaloo wanted to let Sweetie Belle lag behind where she might get lost.

The darkness closed in around them, an oppressive blanket from which they could not escape. Apple Bloom could barely seen Scootaloo up ahead, could only make out vague shapes and shadows around her, even the stars and the moon seemed dimmed tonight.

Nothing would have made her happier than for Scootaloo to have been right, to have got back home to find the fire going and supper on the table, Granny Smith snoring in her rocking chair, to have Applejack look up at the door and smile and say 'Where have you been, sugarcube?' But she couldn't shake the feeling in her gut that it wasn't going to be that way.

Scootaloo stopped abruptly, Sweetie Belle walking into her and Apple Bloom walking into the back of Sweetie Belle.

"What's goin' on?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Shh," Scootaloo hissed. "Look, up there?"

"What," Apple Bloom looked. "Huh?"

Ponyville was surrounded by a teal blue shield, like the ones that Twilight could cast, but bigger. It looked like the shield Shining Armour had raised around Canterlot, or the one that that crazy pony Trixie had put up to keep Twilight out that one time.

"What's going on?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Who could do magic like that?"

"Nopony ah know 'cept Twilight, and that ain't her colour," Apple Bloom said.

The three of them stood side by side, staring at the enveloped Ponyville. They could just about make out the buildings inside, but they could see no sign of any ponies moving about inside the bubble. It was like one of those snowglobes, buildings but no ponies, empty and desolate.

"Maybe if we yell, then somepony will lower the shield and let us in?" Scootaloo suggested.

"Ah don't think that's such a good idea," Apple Bloom replied.

"But what if somepony raised the shield to keep Ponyville safe, and we're in danger because we're outside it?" Sweetie Belle said.

"Even if it was dangerous outside, do you think that would stop Applejack or Rainbow Dash from coming for us?" Apple Bloom said. "Or even Rarity?"

"No," Sweetie Belle murmured. "But then, what else could be going on?"

"Ah don't know, but ah don't like it one bit," Apple Bloom said.

"We won't know if we don't ask somepony," Scootaloo hissed.

"And what if we get found out by somepony we really don't want to be found by?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Okay, Smart Cookie, you got a better idea?"

"We stay here, watch, and see what's goin' on until we know it's safe," Apple Bloom said.

"Watch what, there's nopony around."

"And that doesn't bother you at all?"

"Girls, quiet," Sweetie Belle squeaked. "Somepony's coming."

Instinctively, the Crusaders flattened themselves to the ground as they all three heard the sound of hooves upon the ground. The grass was wet upon their bellies and noses, the dirt getting up their nostrils.

The hooves were getting closer. Apple Bloom raised her head a little off the ground to see who it was. She restrained a gasp as she saw a dozen zebras, spears slung across their shoulders, nosing around led by that black unicorn who had scared off Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon the other day. In the darkness, the zebras seemed like wraiths, their white ghostly while their black stripes practically melted into the night, while the unicorn seemed to wear the dark like a cloak and hood that left only his red eyes visible, burning brightly.

He stopped, two dozen feet away from where they hugged the ground, and looked around, his zebras doing the same. He sniffed the air a few times, noisily. The zebras stayed where they were, and Apple Bloom's breath caught in her throat.

"Let's go," the unicorn said, and he and his patrol continued on their way.

Once the zebras were out of sight, all three crusaders breathed out a deep sigh of relief.

"What do you think that means?" Sweetie Belle asked, her voice a hiss. "What are zebras doing here?"

"Ah don't rightly know, but I reckon that must be what Applejack─"

"Evening ladies, I should have thought that three young filies such as yourselves would be in bed by now."

Apple Bloom jumped, literally, into the air with a startled cry, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle doing likewise as the voice came from behind them.

Turning, they saw the black unicorn with the red eyes standing over them, his expression unreadable, while his zebras formed a half circle around the cutie mark crusaders, spears lowered and points towards them.

"I would have thought," the unicorn said. "That it was rather late for three ponies your age to be out alone. Rather cold as well." He shivered, and Apple Bloom didn't think he was faking it. "You do have homes to go back to, I take it?"

"Of course we do," Scootaloo said. "What's it to you anyway?"

"I simply wanted to make sure that you were taken care of, young lady, I meant no offence," the unicorn said. "Of course, knowing that you are not, in fact, homeless makes me all the more curious to know why you are not, in fact, at home?"

"We were playin' hide and seek, and we lost track of how late it was," Apple Bloom said.

"Really? You did a very poor job of hiding from me," the unicorn said. He smiled sadly, "But then, creatures of the Dark see better in darkness than those who dwell beneath the light."

He knelt down, bringing himself to their level, and his smile became broader as if he were trying to reassure, "Now I know that you don't know me, nor my companions either. But I am equally sure that each of you has somepony at home who misses you terribly and is very worried about you? That's right, isn't it? Your parents must miss you."

"I ain't got no parents, not any more," Apple Bloom said. "It's my brother, my sister and me. And Granny Smith."

The unicorn nodded solemnly, "Raised by your big brother and sister eh? I know all about that young lady, trust me. And I know that if you were my little sister out on a night like this I should be sick of death with fear for you. So what do you say you all come with me, and I'll see you safe home to a nice meal and a warm bed."

Apple Bloom took a step backwards, "That's real kind of you, mister, but my sister told me not to go anywhere with anypony I don't know."

"Good advice, in the main," the unicorn said. "But these are special circumstances. I promise you your sister is waiting and I will take you to her."

"Why don't you just tell her where we are and she can come herself?" Scootaloo asked.

"I am afraid that will not be possible. And it is not safe for you to be out here any longer than necessary."

"Why not?" Apple Bloom asked.

The unicorn stood up, looming over them once again, "I really think that you should come with me."

"No," Scootaloo said flatly.

The unicorn closed his eyes, a pained expression his face, before they snapped open again, "Take them!"

"Run!" Apple Bloom yelled, and the three crusaders turned tail and fled even as the zebras lunged for them. The little fillies darted between the legs of the zebra warriors and scurried away as fast as their little legs could carry them.

"Alive!" the unicorn shouted. "I want them alive and unharmed! We do not make war on babes."

Scootaloo ran fastest, her underdeveloped wings beating furiously as she struggled to get off the ground, succeeding only in gliding a few feet at the time. Apple Bloom took deep, laboured but steady breaths, her earth pony stamina helping her almost keep pace. She looked around, where was─

"Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom shouted, the white unicorn was flagging behind the other two, her breaths ragged and uneven, her pace slowing, falling further and further behind the pegasus and the earth pony. And the black unicorn was catching up to her, his eyes burning like flame.

"C'mon, Scootaloo," Apple Bloom yelled as she started back for Sweetie Belle. The orange pegasus halted, hovering as her wings flapped, then followed as she where Apple Bloom was headed. They each grabbed one of Sweetie Belle's forehooves and pulled her onwards, their hearts pounding as loud as the black unicorn's hooves as he got closer and closer.

"You should let go," Sweetie Belle panted.

"No!" Apple Bloom managed to shout in spite of her exertions. "We're all in this together now come on!"

They ran, the black stallion pursuing. They darted beneath the lowest branches of a tangled, prickly tree, making him halt in his tracks with a whinny of anger before he had to detour around it, but that brought them only a few seconds time. He just kept on coming, always closing on them, starting to smirk wickedly as he did so, the zebra warriors following behind.

"There has to be somewhere we can lose them," Scootaloo panted.

"Any ideas?" Apple Bloom asked.

And then the black unicorn halted, his hooves skidding to a stop and leaving gouges on the earth. He raised one hoof, and all the zebras stopped as well. He stared after the Cutie Mark Cruaders as they kept on running.

"Why did they stop?" Sweetie Belle asked as the three of them kept fleeing across the grassy plain.

"I dunno, but I don' want to give him the chance to change his mind," Apple Bloom said, and they kept on running.

They kept going until the grass beneath their feet had turned to hard, bare earth. Until the crooked shadows of trees and bushes had been replaced by the jagged silhouettes of rock formations. Until they were quite hopelessly lost. Only then did the three fillies stop to catch their breath.

"Where are we?" Apple Bloom asked.

"East of town somewhere, I guess," Scootaloo said. "Kinda feels like the wastes. What do we do now?"

"We can't go back, that's for sure," Apple Bloom said. "Not with those zebras waitin' for us."

"Yeah, I know," Scootaloo said. "But then what do we do?"

"Um, girls," Sweetie Belle murmured. "Maybe we shouldn't have run out so far? Perhaps we should go back a little bit."

"Why?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Well, didn't Applejack tell you the story about when Rarity came out this way," Sweetie Belle said. "There's things out here maybe worse than zebras, things like─"

From out of the darkness came the sound of someone sniggering at them.

"Diamond Dogs!" Sweetie Belle cried.

More laughter joined the chorus, coming from all around them, the dogs invisible in the night, only the echoing of their high pitched shrieking mockery reaching the three fillies. The crusaders stood back to back, facing outwards into a night their eyes could not penetrate.

"Um, hello?" Scootaloo called. "Who's out there?"

A pair of luminescent green eyes loomed out of the darkness reflecting the small light of the stars and moon.

"Nice voice pony," the dog said, his own voice nothing to yell about. "Real nice voice, not hurt ears at all." He sniggered, and all the dogs they could not see laughed with him.

"Uh, thank you?" Sweetie Belle said nervously. "Say, could you help us? We don't really know where we are?"

More laughter, deeper and more throaty than before, accompanied by growling and snarling that seemed to be coming from all around them. Apple Bloom felt fur brush against her leg and almost shrieked in fright, save that she was too afraid to make a sound.

"You in diamond dog territory now, pony," the dog with the green eyes said, his tone fawning even as he continued to sound like nails on a chalkboard. "Shouldn't have come into our land. Not safe for ponies."

"Really?" Scootaloo laughed nervously. "We didn't know that! But now that we do we'll just be on our way."

Some dog roared at them as they made to go.

"You stay," the diamond dog doing all the talking snapped. "Like I said, not safe out here. We keep you safe. Keep you nice and safe until some pony comes get you, yes. Then we keep other pony, or maybe trade you for shiny things, yes, yes. You come with us now."

The growling all around them had intensified, noises in the dark echoing off the rocks around them. Apple Bloom still couldn't see anything, but the images that her imagination conjured were worse than anything that eyes might have beheld.

"We'd love to, but it's getting late," Scootaloo said. "We should really be GO!"

They ran again, trusting to blind luck that the direction they ran in didn't hold a diamond dog waiting to stuff them in a sack.

Sweetie Belle screamed as a huge mutt of a dog, with jowly cheeks and wearing bulky armour, dashed towards her on all fours, slobbery mouth open wide. Apple Bloom dropped back, closed her eyes, and bucked the big dog in the face. The mutt howled in pain and dropped back, tripping over his own paws to land in a heap in the dust.

_Did I do it right, Applejack?_ Apple Bloom thought as she pushed Sweetie Belle onwards, "Come on, Sweetie Belle, we have to move."

Once more they felt grass beneath their feet, but the diamond dog pursuit showed no sign of slowing. They could hear their grunting and panting behind them, hear their howls and barks, and Apple Bloom they meant to run the Cutie Mark Crusaders to the ground.

"Stop!" Scootaloo yelled as she skidded to a stop, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle doing likewise. There before them, barring their way, stood the black unicorn and his zebras.

The diamond dogs stopped behind the three fillies, pinning them between the rock and the hard place.

"Who you? What you want?" the diamond dog demanded.

The black unicorn's mouth twisted contemptuously, "What I want is of no concern to you, you uncouth, unlearned savage. Nor will I be questioned by an intruder and an interloper. Who are you to trespass on the land of Sunset Shimmer, to frighten and pursue her people?"

"Sunset Shimmer? Not know Sunset Shimmer," the dog snarled. "This land belongs to the diamond dogs. These ponies are our slaves!"

"These lands are the property of Sunset Shimmer and Most Ancient Grevyia," the unicorn declared. "These ponies also are her property. As her right hoof I command you go, leave both in peace and return to where you came!"

The dogs growled and snarled and roared, "We'll not be ordered by you pony! Not go! Not without ponies! You go, while we let you!"

The unicorn bared his teeth in a grimace of anger, "I am in a mood to quarrel so I will say this only once: get you gone from this place, or we shall lay you waste every mongrel son."

The diamond dogs hesitated for a moment, and then they leapt to the attack with a wild howl, teeth bared. The unicorn roared with anger as he led his zebras forward in a charge.

The crusaders darted away, hoping to escape in the confusion as the two sides fought each other. Apple Bloom gasped as a zebra reared up above her, spearpoint catching the starlight for a moment. But then a dig dog loomed out of the dark to close with the Grevyian warriors, his jaws closing about the zebra's neck as the zebra shrieked and whinnied in fright and pain.

They fled, the sounds of battle ringing in their ears, and did not stop until they had no sight nor sound of either the zebras or the diamond dogs.

They came to a stop back where they had started, not far from the Ghastly Gorge, and to their hunger, cold and weariness they could not add exhaustion.

"What's happened?" Sweetie Belle asked plaintively.

"Ah don't know, Sweetie," Apple Bloom said, as if it needed saying.

"What do we do?" asked Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom wondered briefly why she was asking her all of a sudden, but didn't voice it because there were more important things to worry about. She frowned, "Canterlot."

Scootaloo smiled in relief, "Of course! Canterlot! How could we have been so stupid?"

"Princess Celestia knows us, kinda," Apple Bloom said. "And Princess Luna knows you, Scootaloo. And when Princess Celestia finds out that something's happened to Ponyville and Twilight she'll help us for sure."

"Princess Celestia will make everything better," Sweetie Belle said confidently.

"Yeah, we'll go to Canterlot," Apple Bloom said. Her legs gave way beneath her and she fell to the ground, "But not right now, because Ah don't know about you girls but Ah don't think I can walk another step tonight."

"Nor me," Sweetie Belle said.

"Me neither," added Scootaloo.

They all lay down, trying to ignore the growling of their stomachs. Even harder to ignore was the cold that made them shiver and tremble and wriggle like worms. Apple Bloom hugged herself, and tried to think of warmth as though the thought would make her warmer.

She felt pressure, and some slight warmth as Sweetie Belle huddled up to her, pressing her small body against Apple Bloom's. She said, "You don't mind, do you?"

Apple Bloom smiled, "No, it feels nice." She even huddled a little closer, 'til they were tight as peas.

She felt a weight on her back as Scootaloo draped herself across the other two like a blanket, murmuring something indistinct before she fell asleep.

And so, with one another even if they had nothing else, the Cutie Mark Crusaders drifted off.


	9. The Host of Sunset

Chapter 9

The Host of Sunset

Darkness lay over Canterlot, the moon shining down over the gleaming spires. If one stood upon the walls, or even looked out of a window high enough and facing the right way, one could see the town of Ponyville sitting upon the plain, surrounded by a blue magical shield. Many ponies had looked that way upon this night, wondering what it might mean, and whether it was at all connected with the anxious pegasus who had flown into Canterlot that afternoon and headed straight for the palace.

Some had even wondered at the colour, and the strangeness of it, for was not Princess Twilight Sparkle's aura supposed to be lavender?

Razor Wind turned away from the window of her home, flapping her dark grey wings gently over to the coffee table around which the other four ponies were grouped. Candles burnt from atop the shelves lining the walls, illuminating the room with an orange-yellow glow. The flames flickered and stirred sluggishly, casting long shadows across the floor.

"Kinda takes you back, doesn't it," Razor said as she settled down. "To when we met like this, on dark nights with dark purposes." She grinned.

"Don't remind us," Hardy Bloom murmured. A light brown earth pony mare with a gavel cutie mark upon her flank, she sat opposite Razor Wind across the coffee table. "I don't suppose anypony has any idea what that thing across the way might be?"

"Don't ask me, I'm not a unicorn," Razor Wind. "Laurel, you know lots of things, what do you think it is?"

Laurel, a somewhat pasty white unicorn with a severe grey mane and a book-and-quill cuite mark, cleared her throat as if she was about to lecture some of her students, "Well, it is quite clearly a shield, that much can be ascertained from observation. The more important questions at this point are first, what is the shield's purpose and second, who cast it? I'm afraid I have no answers."

Razor smirked, "You want to get out of that school before you forget how to speak any language other than academic."

Laurel's horn glowed as she pushed her glasses up her nose a little further, "Less of your backchat, Razor Wind, or I shall have you writing lines."

"It can't be anything too bad, right?" Cherry Blossom asked. "I mean, if it was bad, then there would have been an announcement from the palace."

"Unless things are so bad the palace doesn't know how to announce it," Hardy said. "It could be they're considering their response."

"Do you think they'd announce it if they caught Dawny?" Hard Candy asked from her place at the table's head. When everypony looked at her, the mare with the peppermint eyes shrugged and said, "What? We're all thinking it, aren't we? It's why we're here, isn't it?"

That, Razor Wind reflected, was the honest truth. They had all done their best to keep in touch with one another since the failure of their mad scheme to usurp the Elements of Harmony and help Breaking Dawn ascend to Alicorn Princess-hood. They would have lunch together every friday, meeting up at Cherry's diner to talk about how things were going, complain about their jobs and stallions, have a few laughs. And some weekends they'd all get together and go out on the tiles, take over a ciderhouse and start singing along to Laurel on the piano, keeping the hole street awake. It was fun. But by some unspoken consent there were two topics that they never talked about: Breaking Dawn, and the things that they had done in her name. On the one hoof, their acts had been too serious to be laughed off, dismissed as a summer's madness, transformed into a story of adventure and indiscretion. One did not poison Princess Cadance into losing all her memories of her entire life before framing her husband for the deed and then turn it into a funny story about the stupidest thing you'd ever done. But on the other hoof, the alternative, to have been ashamed of their acts and denied all friendship with the prime mover of them, was even more unthinkable. They couldn't deny Dawny. They couldn't claim to be ashamed of her, to hate her name, to wish they'd never met her.

At least, Razor couldn't. He hoped the others couldn't either, but perhaps that was why they never talked about it: so that they wouldn't have to find out the limits of one another's devotion.

Hardy sighed, "I suppose it was foolish to pretend that wasn't why we're meeting like this, here, now, like before." Breaking Dawn had shared the flat with Razor Wind and Cherry Blossom before becoming the latest addition to the statuary, and the gang of six had met their regularly to plot their next move on the path to power. Hardy continued, "I assume that we've all been questioned by the guard."

Everypony nodded.

"I told them that the first I knew about Dawn's escape was when they told me," Hardy went on. "Was that what everypony else said?"

"If it wasn't, do you think we'd be keeping it to ourselves?" Razor asked.

"I don't know, would you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Ladies, please," Laurel said sharply. "Let's not get into that. If we can't trust each other then what are we doing here."

"So nopony's seen Dawny since she got out then?" Candy asked. "But, if she did break out of that stone, why wouldn't she come see us?"

"She would, if she could," Razor Wind said. "Something's happened to her."

"You don't know that," Hardy said.

"I do, I feel it," Razor Wind said.

"That isn't proof," Laurel murmured.

"Then why isn't she here?" Razor demanded. "Why hasn't she come and seen us, her friends?"

"Maybe she had to run quick to get out of Canterlot before she got caught?" Cherry Blossom suggested.

Razor shook her head, "She wouldn't leave without saying goodbye. No matter how urgent things were Dawny wouldn't abandon us."

"It wouldn't be the first time," Hardy murmured.

And there they were. At the limits of devotion.

"Get out," Razor said.

Hardy was silent for a moment, then gave a mocking laugh, "Excuse me?"

"Get out of my home, you're not welcome here any more," Razor said.

Hardy rolled her eyes, "Oh come on, Razor Wind. How many years was it after she got thrown out of school she didn't have anything to do with us until she thought she could get something out of us."

"It wasn't like that," Cherry said. "Dawny was hurting, she was ashamed, afraid of letting you see her."

"She let us see her quick enough when she wanted a favour," Hardy said.

"Out!" Razor shouted, flapping her wings up towards the ceiling. "Leave by the door before I throw you out the window!"

"Aunt Razor? Aunt Cherry? What's going on?" the door to what had been Dawny's bedroom opened and Numidia stood in the doorway, framed by the darkness from inside giving way to the light of the living room. The little zebra filly they had rescued from the Grevyians rubbed her eyes with one hoof. "Is everything okay? I heard yelling."

Razor smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry sweetie. Everything's fine, I just got a bit carried away. I didn't mean to wake you."

"Is this something to do with aunt Dawny, and those ponies who came looking for her?"

_Smart girl._ Razor said, "Something like that. Don't worry about it, everything's going to be fine."

"Everypony at school was worried about the bright light," Numidia said. "Are we really going to be okay?"

Cherry fluttered over to the little zebra girl, "Of course we are honey. It's like auntie Razor said, everything's going to be just fine." She cupped Numidia's face with her hooves and kissed her on the nose, "I promise we won't let anything happen to you. Now, go on back to bed and get some sleep. We'll be quiet now."

"Can I have another glass of milk? And another cookie?"

Cherry smiled, "You know that you'll have nightmares if you eat too late, now go on." She ushered Numidia back into her room and closed the door after the filly.

"No more shouting," she said firmly.

"Sorry," Razor whispered.

"This is no time to fight," Laurel said softly. "The question is: what do we do?"

"We don't think Dawny's behind the shield over Ponyville, do we?" Candy murmured.

Laurel shook her head, "Dawny's magical aura was golden, and no unicorn can change the colour of their magic except through some external force."

"That's comforting," Hardy said, a touch of sarcasm on the edge of her tone.

"So what do we do?" Cherry asked.

"What can we do, but wait," Hardy asked. "And hope that Dawny isn't involved in this, whatever this is, and that wherever she is, she's safe."

She looked around the table, and every other face was glum in sullen acceptance of that truth: all they could do at this point was hope for Breaking Dawn.

* * *

Virtue stomped through the town hall of ponyville, slamming doors closed behind him and throwing open those before with such force the glass in the windows cracked. Ponies, those Mistress Sunset had selected to do her service, recoiled from his thunderous brow, his burning gaze. His mane was mussed and tattered, mud and dirt smeared into it. In fact he looked filthy all over. His right foreleg was marked by a series of nasty bites, a red and angry mess that he favoured visibly for all that he tried to ignore the pain every time he had to put even the slightest pressure on it.

_Barbarian brutes,_ Virtue thought as he stalked through the hospital. _Filthy as well. I swear if one of those mutts has given me a disease they'll be hearing from me again._

The oversized hounds had been faster than they looked, and as strong as they looked as well. He had lost half his patrol before zebra discipline had prevailed and the savages had run, lacking the stomach for an even fight. There was not a zebra unwounded, he had roused a doctor and a brace of nurses from the hospital and left the zebras and the medical staff each to the tender mercies of the other. For himself, he was not willing to give any pony who had been his enemy when the sun rose the opportunity prod and poke him with needles, strap him into their infernal machines that were not even decent magic but rather some devilry folk here called 'science', poison him with their alchemies. He was going to look for Miss Zecora, whom he hoped would know something of the old ways of doing things.

He headed towards the left cloakroom, where Zecora was being held, but was intercepted along the way by his most esteemed mistress, who looked surprised to be seeing him again tonight.

"Virtuous Fury," Sunset Shimmer said evenly. "What happened to your leg?"

"I was bitten by a dog, mistress," Virtue replied. "Some of my troops have suffered far worse."

"A dog?" Sunset frowned for a moment, before her expression was replaced by a look of dawning comprehension, "Of course, diamond dogs!" She smiled, "That's perfect. Absolutely perfect. What happened?"

"My patrol came across three fillies outside of the shield. They lied, badly, about why they were not at home and then ran from us. We pursued them into the arms of a group of those brutes you just called diamond dogs. They would not retreat, so we attacked them. I lost five zebras, none escaped unharmed, but we slew several of the beasts and drove off the rest, all save for two whom we took captive."

"You still have them?"

"One I hanged for a slaver and a bandit, mistress," Virtue replied. He had been feeling quite angry by that point in the night, and not a little vindictive. "I thought we would only one to put to the question."

Sunset smirked, "My, my, you are in a wicked mood tonight. There'll be no questioning, there's no need, but good work all the same, we'll need a guide."

"Mistress?"

Sunset chuckled, "Get your leg seen to. In the morning we're going down into the diamond dogs' lair, just the two of us."

"Alone? I hardly think that seems wise, mistress."

"Oh don't be such a scaredy-cat," Sunset laughed. "You'll be with me, remember?"

"Such is my fate, mistress," Virtue sighed.

Sunset Shimmer arched one eyebrow, "Sarcasm doesn't suit you at all, I might have mentioned that before."

"My apologies, mistress."

Sunset nodded, "Those three fillies, what about them?"

"They escaped in the confusion of the battle, mistress. I apologise for the error."

Sunset looked away, humming tunelessly, murmuring to herself as if she had suddenly become oblivious to Virtue's presence. At last she deigned to notice him again as she said, "These three fillies, they didn't happen to be yellow, white and orange by any chance did they?"

Virtue blinked, "As it happens, mistress, they were those colours exactly."

"And an earth pony, a unicorn, and a pegasus, one of each?" Sunset demanded.

"The earth pony was yellow, the unicorn white and the pegasus, orange," Virtue confirmed. "Mistress, are these fillies known to you?"

Sunset Shimmer scowled, "Cutie Mark Crusaders."

Virtue frowned, "Mistress?"

"That's what they call themselves: Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I have been forced to endure their banal antics on several occasions while I spied on Twilight Sparkle and her companions."

"Indeed, mistress," Virtue murmured. "It is an...interesting name they have chosen."

Sunset stared at him, "You know, I wouldn't normally go out of my way to stick up for my enemies. In fact I wouldn't normally do it at all, but I have to say: big talk from a guy called Virtuous Fury."

Virtue straightened up, affront proving stronger than the pain in his festering leg, "In my country, ma'am, such a name is accounted─"

"Yes, yes, I heard you the first time," Sunset said. "I want those fillies found."

"My lady, they are but children."

"Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are blood siblings to Applejack and Rarity, the Elements of Honesty and Generosity," Sunset Shimmer explained. "Scootaloo is adopted sister to Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty."

"Yet even if that were taken for noble pedigree, mistress, they are but children still," Virtue said. He did not want to so much as give the order for three fillies to be hunted down like criminal fugitives, much less do it himself. It stuck in his craw to even consider such a thing. A knight should defend the weak, not make war upon them.

_Valour: A knight shall never flee from battle, and shall always render aid up to the helpless. Another vow broken it seems._

Sunset Shimmer tilted her head to one side, "You don't have any stories of fillies and young colts saving the day in Chevalia? You've never heard of a child hero before?"

"No, mistress, in Chevalia we tell stories of brave, strong knights and the fair princesses they served."

"Well in Equestria we know that just because you're pint-sized doesn't mean you can't be dangerous. I want them found, it is as important as finding Fluttershy."

_Lady Fluttershy is hardly what I would call dangerous,_ Virtue thought, but did not say.

"Get your leg looked at," Sunset commanded. "Then get some rest. Tomorrow, at first light, we go dog hunting."

She turned and strode away from him, leaving Virtue to bow his head a little to her retreating back, "As you command, mistress."

He limped the rest of the way to the cloakroom on the left side of the town hall, where the Grevyian guard upon the door waved him in. He entered the small, cramped space - the cloaks and such had all been removed but it was still not large by any means - and sat down in the corner across from Zecora.

"You are the one called Virtuous Fury

Have your perhaps come to question me?" Zecora asked, showing no fear or him nor anger at her situation, but a reserve behind which all was hidden from the eyes of the world.

"I have not ma'am, rest assured of that," Virtue replied. He held out his injured leg, "Instead I hoped you might assist me with my situation?"

Zecora's eyebrows rose, "With hooves and rough words you drag me from my home,

And imprison me beneath this pony dome.

You make war on my friends so dear,

And into pony hearts you drive much fear.

Yet now you come and ask for help of me,

Why should I assist you, for any fee?"

"Because you are not a good person," Virtue said. "You would not leave somepony in pain if you could alleviate their suffering."

"I might decide to cure you by sawing off your leg,

And reducing this rabble here by at least one dreg," Zecora muttered darkly.

Virtue smiled, "You are welcome to try, ma'am."

Zecora stared at him, her eyes gazing into his. At length she huffed in annoyance ─ at him or at herself he did not know ─ and said, "There are many things I will require,

Such as my potion collection entire."

Virtue nodded, and hammered on the door, "Bring me madam Zecora's medicine bag! We confiscated from your hut, ma'am, forgive me. It was how I knew you for a wise mare, as we call them where I come from."

"I am no Wise One raised in true,

But there are many things which I can do," Zecora replied evenly.

Zecora's supplies were returned to her, and she began to work her ancient salves and mystical concoctions upon Virtue's dog bite. He was much more comfortable with the zebra muttering her incantations and working her rituals than he would have been with some pony in a sterile, spotless coat pronouncing gibberish over him like a priest. At least what miss Zecora was saying meant something even if he could not understand a word of it. And if she did decide to put a hex on him or make his leg fall off he would have no one to blame but himself, while he supposed one of those pony doctors could come up with all sorts of reasons why he was dying as his limbs turned green even as they cackled about it behind his back.

"There, it is done," Zecora announced as she tied up a bandage around his leg and hoof. "It seems my cooperation you have won."

"You are a truly good and selfless person, ma'am," Virtue said as he rose. "You have my thanks."

"What I am is a heat-kissed fool,

To give aid to such a servant of misrule."

"I am not such a bad pony as you make me seem," Virtue blurted out, spurred by the bitter remonstrance of her tone. "My heart is not so black as is my coat, my soul not so demonic as my gaze. My life is not a catalogue of sins. I've done good deeds, been brave, been counted among the good by those acclaimed as wise. I am not the villain which my acts here would paint me."

"I cannot judge you by what I do not know,

Your deeds, not words, your character show," Zecora said, looking down at the floor as she condemned him.

"If you knew my life you would not be so swift to denounce me," Virtue said quietly.

"I know you not, and anyway why should you care,

For the opinion of a captive zebra mare?" Zecora asked, looking up into his face once more.

_Because you healed me, and I would rather not be beholden to one who hates me._ Virtue said, "Does not everypony seek to have their name upon the lips of all, and to possess the good opinion of the whole citizenry? I would rather be admired than hated, as any pony would."

"You'll find no admiration in Ponyville here,

Though hatred in great store, I fear," Zecora said.

"Do you hate me?" Virtue asked.

Zecora did not respond, not even by a nod or a shake of the head.

Virtue frowned, "Mistress Sunset tells me that you do not have any tradition of strong heroes in this land, or warriors without peer, but rather your tales are full of children, is that so?"

Zecora hesitated for a moment, "I am not from this land in which I live,

So I too have some ignorance you must forgive.

It is my impression, though one I cannot prove,

That ponies strength and power do not love,

Rather it is great heart they venerate,

Courage detached from strength they celebrate."

"Truly this is a strange world," Virtue murmured. "If I may ask, ma'am, you are yourself very far from home, how did you come to be here?"

Zecora smiled thinly, her eyes sparkling with mischief,

"A good person, you called me when you came in,

And once I, many times, said the same thing,

Even as you told me you were no villain,

And with as much evidence to support my claim.

If I am a person good to know,

It is these pony-folk have made me so."

Virtue chuckled, "Then who knows ma'am, perhaps they will yet make so as well. A pleasant good night."

"As pleasant as a night in chains can be

I'll have it, I declare with certainty."

* * *

Sunset began her journey in the grey light of dawn, as the sun rose. _So conscientious, Princess Celestia. You could have blinded me with night and descended on me with a host of guards, instead you sit in Canterlot and raise the sun at morn just as you always have so that all your little ponies from Manehattan to Appleoosa will not feel discomforted. Your concern for your subjects will be your undoing. _

_And yet I admire you for it._ In her travels she had crossed many worlds, and encountered many rulers. Some had been brave, some had been cowards. Some had been wise, some had been foolish. Some had been loved, some had been hated. Some had loved their people, others had been wolves preying on the sheep they had been set to watch. She had stood before the fat and blustering king of the grundles, who had stared at her dumbfounded when she demanded he give up his throne, blinking foolishly as though his wits were too addled to understand her words. Hiero, dear Hiero fallen in her defence, had come to her, knelt at her feet and kissed her hooves and begged for her to save his people. He had so loved them, been so desperate for someone - somepony - to save the drake-kind from the smooze that he had sold his soul to her, given up his very body for her to do as she willed. And most recently there had been the Chevalian princess Regal Grace, so stubborn and so proud, so begrudging even in defeat.

Of all of them, all the monarchs whose thrones she had overthrown, all the senates she had bullied or bought, all the rulers and the governments she had tested and found wanting, Celestia was the only one whom Sunset could respect. Only in her, of all those she had known, where bravery, wisdom, compassion, generosity and love all intermingled. It was no accident that she had won the loyal service of such gifted and intelligent unicorns as Twilight Sparkle and the devotion of everypony up and down the land. She was the ideal princess given form. It was in many ways a shame that Sunset Shimmer had to bring her down.

But bring her down she must. She had vowed upon the souls of her parents that she would come into her own kingdom, she had made bargains black as night in the lonely void between the worlds that she might climb higher still than mortal thrones. Her ambitions would admit of no hesitation, no delay. She would not halt for admiration, for friendship, not for joy and not for tears. She had not climbed from lower than a pawn in a simple chessboard to be queen in the grandest game was ever played to stop now.

"We are here," the voice of the dig dog prisoner, guttural yet high pitched in his snivelling, cut through her thoughts like a dully and filthy night. The dogs forepaws were bound behind his back, and he had a leash around his neck held securely in the mouth of Virtuous Fury. The unicorn who had named himself her demon had taken up weapons again for the first time since they had arrived in this land, a long spear slung across his back.

The place the dog had led them too was a blasted, desolate wasteland. Bare rock and hard soil was all there was for the eye to see. No wonder ponies shunned this place, even earth pony magic would struggle to raise anything green from a place like this.

Virtue let the leash drop from his mouth and stepped on it, "We are here? What treachery is this, dog? A blind mule could see that there is nothing here."

"Nothing above," the dog said, leering at the two ponies. "But below..."

Virtue's mouth twisted in disgust, "You live in the dirt like moles? Savages."

"Don't be so intolerant of what lies beyond your understanding," Sunset said softly. "The diamond dogs were a great people once, and though they have fallen far one must not forget that they once stood much higher than they do now. I have no doubt that living underground is quite pleasant for them."

The dog laughed, a harsh sound like a saw biting into would, "You soon find out for yourselves."

Virtue bared his teeth, "And what, pray, do you mean by that?"

The dig dog's smile was vicious, "Underground, you can hear everything that happens up above."

Virtue cursed as the earth erupted all around them, mounds of earth flying up into the air to shower them with dirt. Sunset kept her face serene, her heartbeat never rising even as rough paws seized her and dragged her down, down under the earth, down into a bleak cavern beneath the earth, the centre of a warren of tunnels lit only by the faint sparkling of gemstones and a handful of torches thrust crudely into the soil.

The faint firelight reflected off the eyes of a host of diamond dogs surrounding them, their eyes seeming flat and eerily soulless in the near-total darkness. Only one diamond dog was illuminated to such a degree that he could see seen, a brown dog of some six feet, with point ears and eyes that were green like some noxious chemical mixture. Lit up by two torches he stood before them, his teeth yellow and his breath fetid, while all around the captive ponies dogs howled and laughed until their leader raised his paws for silence.

"Welcome all our honoured guests," he said to raucous laughter. "You sought the home of the infamous diamond dogs. And now you've found it." More laughter echoed throughout the cavern. Virtue struggled, squirming and writhing in his bonds, muffled angry sounds coming from his muzzled mouth, but six dig dogs held him fast and tight, he could not break free.

"Now you will find out, why we don't get many visitors," the diamond dog leader said.

"Maybe we put a rope around your neck and hang you from the roof, pony, see how you like it," their erstwhile prisoner snapped. "Not so tough now are you?"

Virtue's reply was once again muffled by the dogs holding his mouth shut.

"Don't try and drive us mad with your voices, we're wise to that trick now," the dog declared grandly. "We'll stop our ears with wax until you can't both us any more. Work hard, or we'll saw off your horns."

"Oh give it a rest you arrogant mutt, you'll do no such thing," Sunset said.

For a moment, the vast chamber was shocked into silence. Then the dog said, "Quiet slave! Speak when spoken to!"

Sunset Shimmer smirked, then showed them her true power. Her whole body seemed to burst into flame. Brilliant light, intense as the sun itself, erupted outwards from her. The pony was replaced by the burning silhouette of an alicorn, terrible in her wrath, with mane ablaze and skin erupting. The diamond dogs shrieked in fear, the closest to her fighting to escape. The flames sped outwards, incinerating several diamond dogs in the process. The fire washed over Virtue - she had brought him and only him with her because of his curious resistance to all fire and heat - and him alone they did not harm. The dogs were fighting one another to escape by now, but their great numbers were clogging the exits and trapping the horde inside their own hall. Their leader, all lone, cowered in fear as flames like serpents coiled around him, swirling up and down as if looking for the best place to strike at him and mark him.

"COWARDLY, FLEA RIDDEN CREATURES", Sunset Shimmer thundered, as the silhouette of the burning alicorn was replaced by a spectre of pure sunlight, illuminating the whole cavern, blinding any dog who looked directly at her. "DID YOU REALLY THINK TO MAKE A SLAVE OF THE MISTRESS OF SUNSET? FALL TO YOUR KNEES AND BEG FORGIVENESS BEFORE I DESTROY YOU ALL."

Sunset Shimmer released her magic, the light and fire disappeared, leaving only Sunset Shimmer and the ashes of those diamond dogs she had consumed. Virtue's eyes were wide with awe and not a little fear. Sunset smiled, she rarely displayed the full extent of her capabilities but when she did nopony went away unimpressed. The diamond dogs, those she had not burned to dust, sank to their filthy floor and grovelled one and all.

"What are you?" their leader asked, in between trying to bury himself like the worm he had been revealed to be.

"What am I?" Sunset laughed. "I am promise. I am hope. I am the future and the past." She made her way to the raised mound from which the diamond dog leader had so recently mocked those whom he thought his captives.

"Behold, the noble race of diamond dogs," Sunset Shimmer declared, gesturing around the hole in the earth. "A proud race, once, feared and respected throughout the land. The right claws of the Griffon Dominion, in the old days when the Dominion encompassed all the lands north of Most Ancient Grevyia. Masters of the Sky, Servants of the Earth, that was the way of it was it not? Or have you sunk so low as to forget your own history?"

"Those days are gone," the green-eyed dog growled.

"Indeed," Sunset Shimmer said deliberately. "The Dominion fell, the old magic went out of the world, replaced by the shinier, more flashy power of the unicorns. And what have the diamond dogs done in response to the changes of the world: why they have crawled underground and hid, of course! Ponies who would once have trembled in fear now mock you without fear. To some you are nothing but an old mare's tail, something to frighten colts and fillies into bed. Your great mines lie abandoned, you dwell in unsupported tunnels such as ants might dig, Gem Fido is nothing more than a ramshackle kennel where brawlers scuffle in their own filth and the dwarfish thieves who pass for chiefs amongst you scrap over the leavings of a people devoid of majesty or power.

"You may deny it. You may bluster and howl. But in your hearts you know that I speak true: you are a fallen people. You sit in the dirt and mine for gems, why? Nopony will trade with you, you cannot eat them as dragons do. You will work yourselves to death for no other reason than you have always done so until the last diamond dog collapses in some hole in the ground and your race passes unnoticed from the world. But I can save you from that. Already I have brought hope to Most Ancient Grevyia, and a zebra army now follows at my back. I cannot restore the ancient days but I can restore a little of the shine they once attached to the once-proud masters of those times."

The diamond dogs all stared at her in amazement. Even Virtue seemed enchanted by the spell of words she wove over her audience. The green eyed dog spoke in a voice that was small and childlike, "What do you ask of us?"

"Service," Sunset said. "Fealty. Servants of the Earth, Mistress of the Sun and Stars. Swell my armies, show these ponies that you are yet a people to be feared. And in return I will make you great again. The ancient mines and lands reclaimed, wealth beyond measure showered upon you all, slaves to do your bidding. And _purpose_, that which you have not had since the authority of the griffons crumbled. Follow me, and I will give the diamond dogs a reason to live on, as the most respected race in all Equestria!"

The diamond dogs roared in approval, raising their paws in the air, howling so hard Sunset feared the cavern might collapse from their volume and bury them all.

"Sunset! Sunset!" they cried, and Sunset stood in the midst of their accolades smiled. _Now I have a second army, twice as loyal as the first. What matter now if Grevyian High Bloods plot against me? Hear this in Canterlot, Celestia, and tremble._

"I know how eager you are to follow me, to avenge yourselves upon the ponies who have driven you underground," Sunset yelled. "But some of you must go. Go, and spread the word to wherever there are more diamond dogs to be found: to the Unicorn Range, to the Badlands, as far as Gem Fido itself and tell any dog who wishes to stand tall again in sunlight to follow me. Servants of the Earth!"

"Mistress of the Sun and Stars!" the diamond dogs cried out.

One dog in particular, a squat brown dog with slightly floppy ears and yellow eyes, Sunset Shimmer singled out and had brought to her.

"You in particular I would have go to Gem Fido," she said. "With a message for Witherfang."

The dog looked confused and a little wary, "Witherfang? But Mistress, Witherfang─"

"Styles herself Queen of the Diamond Dogs, I know," Sunset Shimmer said. "That is why I want you to speak to her, rather than any other two bit Alpha dog."

"If tales of Witherfang are true, she will not like to hear that diamond dogs have pony mistress."

"That's why I want you to give her a message from me," Sunset leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Tell her this, from me: I'm waiting."

* * *

The day did not start off well for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Breakfast, in place of freshly made pancakes, apple butter and corn syrup they had swallowed down some orange berries they'd found growing on a bush nearby. They'd all been very hungry at the time but with the benefit of hindsight (or even, honestly, a little foresight) it hadn't really been a very good idea as it left them all feeling a little sick in their stomachs afterwards.

"Ugh, what were those things?" Scootaloo asked.

"Bad news," Sweetie Belle moaned.

"Ah know we don't feel so good, but we can't let it keep us sitting here," Apple Bloom spoke through gritted teeth. "Applejack and everypony's countin' on us to get to Canterlot and get help from Princess Celestia!"

"They're counting us?" Scootaloo said.

"Well maybe not intentionally, but if they knew what we were plannin' Ah'm sure they'd say it's a great idea," Apple Bloom said defensively. "And Ah'm sure they're givin' us their best wishes either way. Now are we moving out or not?"

Scootaloo climbed heavily to her feet, "Yeah, you're right, let's go. Can't keep Rainbow Dash waiting any more than we have to, right? Just think how awesome I'll be in her eyes when _I_ save _her_!"

Sweetie Belle laughed, "Totally awesome."

"Super awesome," Apple Bloom said with a nod and a grin.

"Awesomely awesome," Scootaloo declared. "Wait, no."

Apple Bloom giggled, "Come on, awesomesauce, let's get a move on."

"If only I had my scooter and cart, we could be there in no time," Scootaloo lamented. "At least we'll be fit when we get to Canterlot."

Apple Bloom looked up at the city, gleaming golden as it sat upon the slopes of the mountain. It looked a long way off, but it wasn't as far as it looked. The train would get you there in a few hours, and while it would take longer on foot Applejack and all her friends had gotten there in time for the Grand Galloping Gala in just one night. Of course, those stallions Rarity had sweet talked into pulling their carriage had longer legs than any of the Crusaders did.

Though she wore no hat, Apple Bloom unconsciously imitated Applejack's habitual motion for pushing it back on her head, brushing her hoof up her face even though it connected only with the air.

"Well, it ain't get any closer we just stare at it like this. Let's go girls! For Ponyville and for our sisters!"

"And adopted sister!"

"I wasn't leavin' you out you know."

"I know."

Apple Bloom held out her hoof. Quickly, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo placed their own hooves on top of hers.

"Altogether now: Cutie Mark Crusaders Heroes Yay!" They broke apart with a whoop, and began their journey to Canterlot with spirits renewed and hearts lifted.

_Don't you worry about a thing, Applejack, I'm a-coming._

They walked through the grassy meadows that lay about Ponyville, the favourite picnic spots of ponies with time on their hooves, steering clear of the town itself and it's zebra occupants while making doubly sure to stay away from the diamond dog wastes - which were anyway in the opposite direction to Canterlot and a good thing too.

Suddenly, Scootaloo stopped, freezing like a mouse that has just spotted a falcon eyeing it from a high branch. She looked around, first left, then right, then she grabbed Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle by the necks and pushed them into the nearest ditch before leaping in herself.

"Scootaloo, what are you─" Apple Bloom was cut off mid-sentence by Scootaloo's hoof in her mouth.

"Quiet," Scootaloo whispered. "Look, up there."

Apple Bloom poked her head out of the ditch by the smallest possible margin to see a zebra patrol approaching. If they had kept going out in the open they would have been spotted for sure by now.

The zebras, their faces painted in blue and red warpaint, stopped, looking around. They spoke to one another in their native language, their tone somewhere between aggrieved and annoyed as far as Apple Bloom could tell, not knowing what they were actually saying. They showed no sign of moving on and letting the Crusaders go on their way in peace.

"You don't think they're looking for us do you?" Sweetie Belle whispered.

"Maybe, either way we have to get past them," Apple Bloom muttered. "We'll break left and try and use the cover of the bushes to stop 'em seein' us."

"No, that way won't work," Scootaloo hissed. "We need to go right."

"But that takes us closer to Ponyville, and there's less cover that way."

"If we follow the right path, then they won't be able to see us from where they are 'cause of the way the ground curves," Scootaloo said.

"What?"

"Just trust me okay."

"The last time we trusted you─"

"We almost got caught, I know, but this time I know what to do. I'm not just guessing. I know it, like I knew to hide before I saw the zebras. Just, follow my lead okay, everything's gonna be okay."

"Scootaloo! Wait!" Apple Bloom hissed at her, but Scootaloo had already crawled out of the ditch to the right, wriggling on her belly on a course that would allow her to circle the zebra picket, at the cost of passing between them and Ponyville itself.

Scootaloo crawled, as sweat poured down Apple Bloom's face and her breath stopped in her throat. _Please don't get caught, please don't get caught_.

Scootaloo went ten yards, and no cry of alarm issued from the zebras. It appeared that they had not seen her at all.

Scootaloo looked back, grinned, and nodded slightly.

Sweetie Belle went next, moving like a caterpillar through the grass, and Apple Bloom brought up the rear, taking the big bow out of her hair in case it stuck up too far and gave them away. It felt strange, not having the comforting feel of it against her neck, and it was annoying when her red mane fell down over her face, but it was better than being caught that's for sure.

They followed Scootaloo's lead without hesitation as the little pegasus led by a winding path around the zebras without them ever being seen, until they had left the Grevyian patrol behind and the way to Canterlot was once more open to them.

"How did you know that this was the way to go?" Apple Bloom asked.

Scootaloo shrugged, "I dunno, I just felt it I guess."

"Well keep feelin' it, that could come in handy again," Apple Bloom said. "Now we probably shouldn't waste too much time res─"

The sound of a trumpet, low and deep, stole the rest of her words away. Especially as it was then answered by ten, twenty, a hundred more trumpets speaking back to the first. Horns ringing out across the land, horns loudly blowing, horns heralding the arrival of the zebra army, marching into Ponyville as if all its pomp and pageantry was a parade put on for the edification of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

First they saw the dust cloud the zebra host kicked up, hanging above them as though some pegasi were following the army and keeping them well supplied with cloud cover. Then they saw them, at first far off, then closer, marching in massed ranks into the town that the crusaders called home but now seemed to be becoming more and more alien before their very eyes.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders flattened themselves to the ground once more and watched as the enemy went by, as ignorant of their presence as a lion was ignorant of a gnat.

Zebras. So many zebras. Proud lords and ladies with hard-faced expressions, trailed by their banners and their bodyguards, their antelope attendants fanning them with palm leaves, their painted flatterers and bejewelled kin. There were heavy-armoured warriors covered from head to hooves in glittering chainmail and quilted armour. There were zebra warriors in breastplates, their faces painted in a gorgeous array of colours, spears bristling from their tight formations. There were disorderly masses of thin, small zebras carrying scythes and hoes and sticks of wood and a hundred other instruments of farming and craftsmareship. The heads of those zebras were hung down low, their expressions dispirited. More armoured zebras came behind them, their armour decorated with ebony and ivory, wearing black helmets and following the banner of a golden eagle on white.

And there were buffalo too, like the ones her cousin Braeburn knew in Appleoosa. But these ones looked a little less hairy than the ones she'd been told about, and their horns were broader and more curved. They snorted angrily as they marched past, tossing their heads this way and that, stamping on the ground as though it had offended them.

Overhead, the only sound was the buzzing of wings as a horde of giant mantises flew by, wings flickering furiously. Now and again the Crusaders heard a shrieking cry as something larger, with feathered wings, darted through the mantis mass.

There were creatures Apple Bloom did not recognise even from books: creatures with scaly skin, leathery wings, sharp claws and jutting jaws. But they looked like nothing she had seen in life, heard in stories nor read about in class. They weren't dragons, they weren't cockatrices, they weren't anything. No two of them even looked alike. The only thing she did know was that they frightened her more than any of the zebras did.

And then the elephants. So many elephants. Great, grey mountains, standing tall above the rest of the army, trumpeting their presence as they made the ground shake beneath their feet. They had bronze bells around their neck with rang as they moved, and wooden castles upon their backs that swayed with the elephants' ponderous gait. A zebra sat upon the head of each elephant, with more in each of the wooden towers, looking down upon their fellow zebras with the kind of smugness usually associated with Rainbow Dash as she sat on a cloud high above the rest of Ponyville.

They were an army beyond count, beyond the counting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders anyway, and it was all heading towards Ponyville.

"Wow," Sweetie Belle murmured. "What do you think it means?"

"Ah think it means this just got more complicated," Apple Bloom muttered.


End file.
